Method and system for transmiting N-bit video data over a serial link

ABSTRACT

A system including a receiver, a TMDS link (or other serial link), and a transmitter configured to transmit K-bit video words (typically, encoded 8-bit video words) over the link. In typical embodiments, the transmitter is configured to pack a sequence of N-bit video words, where N≠K (e.g., N=10, 12, or 16, when K=8) into a sequence of K-bit fragments, encode the fragments, and transmit the encoded fragments. The transmitted data are indicative of a sequence of M-fragment groups, and the transmitter is typically configured also to transmit over the link packing phase data indicative of the phase of the most recently transmitted fragment. Other aspects are transmitters and receivers for use in such a system and methods implemented by any such transmitter, receiver, or system.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention pertains to methods and systems for transmitting videodata (e.g., encoded video data) over a serial link, and to transmittersand receivers for use in such systems. In preferred embodiments, theserial link is a transition minimized differential signaling (“TMDS”)link, or a link having some but not all of the characteristics of a TMDSlink.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Throughout this disclosure (including in the claims) the expression“pixel clock” (or “source pixel clock”) denotes the pixel rate clockemployed by a transmitter to receive (from a source) or generate videodata to be transmitted over a serial link (e.g., video data to beencoded, serialized, and then transmitted over a serial link).Typically, a pixel clock cycles once per pixel.

Throughout this disclosure (including in the claims) “link clock”denotes the link rate clock employed by a transmitter to transmit datasymbols (e.g., encoded video data) over a serial link. In the case oftransmission over a TMDS link, the link clock cycles once per linksymbol. In operation of a typical, conventional DVI-compliant orHDMI-compliant system (“DVI” and “HDMI” links are discussed below), thesource pixel clock's frequency matches that of the link clock, and thetransmitter transmits the link clock (with encoded video data) to thereceiver over the serial link.

Various serial links for transmitting data and clock signals are wellknown.

One conventional serial link, used primarily for high-speed transmissionof video data from a host processor (e.g., a personal computer) to amonitor, is known as a transition minimized differential signalinginterface (“TMDS” link). The characteristics of a conventional TMDS linkinclude the following:

1. 8-bit words (components) of video data are encoded and thentransmitted as 10-bit encoded symbols. Each 8-bit Red, Green, or Bluecomponent of a 24-bit RGB pixel of digital video data is converted to anencoded 10-bit symbol before transmission;

-   -   a. the encoding determines a set of “in-band” (data) words and a        set of “out-of-band” (control) words (the encoder can generate        only “in-band” words in response to video data, although it can        generate “out-of-band” words in response to control or sync        signals. Each in-band word is an encoded word resulting from        encoding of one input video data word. All words transmitted        over the link that are not in-band words are “out-of-band”        words);    -   b. the encoding of video data is performed such that the in-band        words are transition minimized (a sequence of in-band words has        a reduced or minimized number of transitions);    -   c. the encoding of video data is performed such that the in-band        words are DC balanced (the encoding prevents each transmitted        voltage waveform that is employed to transmit a sequence of        in-band words from deviating by more than a predetermined        threshold value from a reference potential. Specifically, the        tenth bit of each “in-band” word indicates whether eight of the        other nine bits thereof have been inverted during the encoding        process to correct for an imbalance between running counts of        ones and zeroes in the stream of previously encoded data bits);

2. the encoded video data and a video clock signal are transmitted asdifferential signals (the video clock and encoded video data aretransmitted as differential signals over conductor pairs);

3. three conductor pairs are employed to transmit the encoded video, anda fourth conductor pair is employed to transmit the video clock signal;and

4. signal transmission occurs in one direction, from a transmitter(typically associated with a desktop or portable computer, or otherhost) to a receiver (typically an element of a monitor or other displaydevice).

Another serial link is the “High Definition Multimedia Interface”interface (“HDMI” link) developed Silicon Image, Inc., MatsushitaElectric, Royal Philips Electronics, Sony Corporation, ThomsonMultimedia, Toshiba Corporation, and Hitachi. An HDMI link can beimplemented to include two TMDS links (which share a common conductorpair for transmitting a video clock signal) or one TMDS link, as well asadditional control lines between the transmitter and receiver.

Another serial link is the “Digital Visual Interface” interface (“DVI”link) adopted by the Digital Display Working Group. It will be describedwith reference to FIG. 1. A DVI link can be implemented to include twoTMDS links (which share a common conductor pair for transmitting a videoclock signal) or one TMDS link, as well as additional control linesbetween the transmitter and receiver. The DVI link of FIG. 1 includestransmitter 1, receiver 3, and a cable (comprising connectors 120 and121 and conductor set 122) between the transmitter and receiver.Conductor set 122 comprises four conductor pairs, Channel 0, Channel 1,and Channel 2 (sometimes referred to as “CH0,” “CH1,” and “CH2”) forvideo data, and Channel C (sometimes referred to herein as “CHC”) for aclock signal. Conductor set 122 also includes Display Data Channel(“DDC”) lines for bidirectional communication between the transmitterand a monitor associated with the receiver in accordance with theconventional Display Data Channel standard (the Video ElectronicsStandard Association's “Display Data Channel Standard,” Version 2, Rev.0, dated Apr. 9, 1996), a Hot Plug Detect (HPD) line (on which themonitor transmits a signal that enables a processor associated with thetransmitter to identify the monitor's presence), Analog lines (fortransmitting analog video to the receiver), and Power lines (forproviding DC power to the receiver and a monitor associated with thereceiver). The Display Data Channel standard specifies a protocol forbidirectional communication between a transmitter and a monitorassociated with a receiver, including transmission by the monitor of anExtended Display Identification (“EDID”) message that specifies variouscharacteristics of the monitor, and transmission by the transmitter ofcontrol signals for the monitor. Transmitter 1 includes three identicalencoder/serializer units (units 2, 4, and 6) and additional circuitry(not shown). Receiver 3 includes three identical recovery/decoder units(units 8, 10, and 12) and inter-channel alignment circuitry 14 connectedas shown, and additional circuitry (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 1, circuit 2 encodes the data to be transmitted overChannel 0, and serializes the encoded bits. Similarly, circuit 4 encodesthe data to be transmitted over Channel 1 (and serializes the encodedbits), and circuit 6 encodes the data to be transmitted over Channel 2(and serializes the encoded bits). Each of circuits 2, 4, and 6 respondsto a control signal (an active high binary control signal referred to asa “data enable” or “DE” signal) by selectively encoding either digitalvideo words (in response to DE having a high value) or a control orsynchronization signal pair (in response to DE having a low value). Eachof encoders 2, 4, and 6 receives a different pair of control orsynchronization signals: encoder 2 receives horizontal and verticalsynchronization signals (HSYNC and VSYNC); encoder 4 receives controlbits CTL0 and CTL1; and encoder 6 receives control bits CTL2 and CTL3.Thus, each of encoders 2, 4, and 6 generates in-band data symbolsindicative of video data (in response to DE having a high value),encoder 2 generates out-of-band control symbols indicative of the valuesof HSYNC and VSYNC (in response to DE having a low value), encoder 4generates out-of-band control symbols indicative of the values of CTL0and CTL1 (in response to DE having a low value), and encoder 6 generatesout-of-band words indicative of the values of CTL2 and CTL3 (in responseto DE having a low value). In response to DE having a low value, each ofencoders 4 and 6 generates one of four specific out-of-band controlsymbols indicative of the values 00, 01, 10, or 11, respectively, ofcontrol bits CTL0 and CTL1 (or CTL2 and CTL3).

It has been proposed to use a cryptographic protocol known as“High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection”(“HDCP”) to encrypt digitalvideo to be transmitted over a DVI link and to decrypt the data at theDVI receiver. A DVI transmitter implementing HDCP outputs a 24-bit bus,known as cout[23:0], during the video active period (i.e. when DE ishigh). This 24-bit cout data is “Exclusive Ored” (in logic circuitry inthe transmitter) with the 24-bit RGB video data input to the transmitterin order to encrypt the video data. The encrypted data is then encoded(according to the TMDS standard) for transmission. The same cout data isalso generated in the receiver. After the encoded and encrypted datareceived at the receiver undergoes TMDS decoding, the cout data isprocessed together with the decoded video in logic circuitry in order todecrypt the decoded data and recover the original input video data.

Before the transmitter begins to transmit HDCP encrypted, encoded videodata, the transmitter and receiver communicate bidirectionally with eachother to execute an authentication protocol (to verify that the receiveris authorized to receive protected content, and to establish sharedsecret values for use in encryption of input data and decryption oftransmitted encrypted data). After the receiver has been authenticated,the transmitter calculates the initial set of encryption keys (forencrypting the first line of input video data) in response to a controlsignal and sends the control signal to the receiver (during eachvertical blanking period, when DE is low) to cause the receiver tocalculate an initial set of decryption keys (for decrypting the firstreceived and decoded line of transmitted video data). Followinggeneration of the initial set of encryption/decryption keys, each of thetransmitter and receiver performs a re-keying operation during eachblanking (vertical or horizontal) interval to generate a new set of keysfor encrypting (or decrypting) the next line of video data, and actualencryption of input video data (or decryption of received, decoded videodata) is performed using the latest set of keys only when DE is high(not during the blanking intervals).

Throughout the specification the expression “TMDS-like link” will beused to denote a serial link capable of transmitting encoded data (e.g.,encoded digital video data) and a clock for the encoded data, from atransmitter to a receiver, and also capable of transmitting(bidirectionally or unidirectionally) one or more additional signals(e.g., encoded digital audio data or other encoded data) between thetransmitter and receiver, that is or includes either a TMDS link or alink having some but not all of the characteristics of a TMDS link.Examples of TMDS-like links include links that differ from TMDS linksonly by encoding data as N-bit code words (e.g., with N≠10 or N=10) thatare not 10-bit TMDS code words, and links that differ from TMDS linksonly by transmitting encoded video over more than three or less thanthree conductor pairs. There are several conventional TMDS-like links.

The term “transmitter” is used herein in a broad sense to denote anydevice capable of encoding data and transmitting the encoded data over aserial link (and optionally also performing additional functions, whichcan include encrypting the data to be transmitted and other operationsrelated to encoding, transmission, or encryption of the data). The term“receiver” is used herein in a broad sense to denote any device capableof receiving and decoding data that has been transmitted over a seriallink (and optionally also performing additional functions, which caninclude decrypting the received data and other operations related todecoding, reception, or decryption of the received data). For example,the term transmitter can denote a transceiver that performs thefunctions of a receiver as well as the functions of a transmitter. In amore specific example, the term transmitter (with reference to a devicethat transmits non-audio auxiliary data over a TMDS-like link or otherserial link) can denote a transceiver that is configured to receivevideo data and audio data over the link and to transmit the non-audioauxiliary data over the link.

Some TMDS-like links encode input video data (and other data) to betransmitted into encoded words comprising more bits than the incomingdata using a coding algorithm other than the specific algorithm used ina TMDS link, and transmit the encoded video data as in-band charactersand the other encoded data as out-of-band characters. The charactersneed not be classified as in-band or out-of-band characters basedaccording to whether they satisfy transition minimization and DC balancecriteria. Rather, other classification criteria could be used. Anexample of an encoding algorithm, other than that used in a TMDS linkbut which could be used in a TMDS-like link, is IBM 8b10b coding. Theclassification (between in-band and out-of-band characters) need not bebased on just a high or low number of transitions. For example, thenumber of transitions of each of the in-band and out-of-band characterscould (in some embodiments) be in a single range (e.g., a middle rangedefined by a minimum and a maximum number of transitions).

The data transmitted between the transmitter and receiver of a TMDS-likelink can, but need not, be transmitted differentially (over a pair ofconductors). Also, although a TMDS link has four differential pairs (inthe single pixel version), three for video data and the other for avideo clock, a TMDS-like link could have a different number ofconductors or conductor pairs. Also, even though a TMDS link explicitlytransmits the link clock over a separate differential pair, other links(including some TMDS-like links) do not explicitly transmit the linkclock, in which case the receiver is required to recover the implicitclock from the data signaling. A link clock is not explicitlytransmitted in all embodiments of the present invention, although a linkclock is explicitly transmitted in some embodiments.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a class of embodiments, the invention is a transmitter configured topack a sequence of N-bit words of video data (where N is a “color depth”parameter, and N≠8) into a sequence of K-bit words to be referred to as“fragments” (where K is not equal to N) to encode the K-bit fragments,and to transmit the encoded fragments to a receiver over a serial link.Typically, the N-bit words of video data are received or generated bythe transmitter at rate P, and encoded fragments are transmitted at arate (N/K)P. In preferred embodiments, the color depth parameter N is10, 12, or 16, and K=8 (e.g., as in embodiments in which three streamsof encoded 8-fragments of data generated in accordance with theinvention are transmitted in place of the three encoded streams of 8-bitcomponents that are transmitted conventionally over serial linksemployed in DVI-compliant and HDMI-compliant systems).

In accordance with preferred embodiments of the invention, thetransmitted data are indicative of a sequence of M-fragment “groups”(each group consisting of M fragments, where M is N divided by thegreatest common divisor of N and K), and the “j” th fragment in eachgroup (where 1≦j≦M) has a phase within the group. Each group of Mfragments carries the encoded data for a group of (M*K/N) N-bit videodata words. In accordance with preferred embodiments of the invention, areceiver is configured to deserialize and decode the K-bit fragments atthe link transmission rate (N/K)P and to the unpack (reassemble) thetransmitted fragments into N-bit words of video and blanking data thatare output exactly at the original pixel rate P. The receiver unpackingsequence is designed to match and track the transmitter packingsequence.

In preferred embodiments, the transmitter is configured to occasionallytransmit, over the link, phase information (sometimes referred to hereinas “packing phase data”) indicative of the phase of the most recentlytransmitted fragment at a known checkpoint (e.g., the start or end of aline or frame), to allow the receiver to unpack the recovered fragmentsin phase with the packing by the transmitter. The phase information maybe explicit, for example, by allowing the phase to vary and transmittinga “packing phase at checkpoint” message during blanking. This approachsupports arbitrary active pixel, blanking and total (active pixel plusblanking) counts between checkpoints (e.g., arbitrary active pixel,blanking and total counts per video line). In typical embodiments,(K+X)-bit code words (where X>0) indicative of the K-bit fragments aretransmitted during active video periods, and the explicit phaseinformation is indicated by other (K+X)-bit code words transmitted overthe same channel during blanking intervals.

In other embodiments, the phase information may be implicit (e.g.,packing phase data are indicated implicitly to the receiver, rather thanbeing explicitly transmitted to the receiver). For example, this can bedone by fixing the transmitted phase at a checkpoint, such as the startof blanking. This approach supports arbitrary pixel and blanking countsfor cases in which the total (pixel plus blanking) count can beconstrained to an exact multiple of the pixel group size. For anotherexample, the phase information may be implicit by always restarting thetransmitter packing sequence at a checkpoint, such as the start of pixeldata (the start of an active video interval), and allowing the number oflink symbols transmitted during blanking to vary slightly from line toline, such that the ratio of link symbols to pixel plus blankingcharacters is exactly (N/K). This approach supports arbitrary total,pixel and blanking counts.

In typical embodiments, the transmitter is operable in any of at leasttwo different packing modes (sometimes referred to as color depthmodes), the parameter N has a different value in each mode, theparameter K is a constant for the encoding system (K=8 for TMDSencoding), and the transmitter is configured to transmit (over theserial link) the encoded fragments, the packing phase data, and data(sometimes referred to as “color mode data”) indicative of the colordepth mode in which the transmitter currently operates. In some suchembodiments, the transmitter is operable in an 8-bit mode to transmit8-bit words of video data (encoded as Q-bit code words) to a receiverover the serial link using a link clock having frequency P is alsooperable in at least one other mode in accordance with the invention topack N-bit words (where N is not equal to 8) of video data (typicallyclocked into the transmitter using a pixel clock having frequency P)into 8-bit fragments, encode the fragments as Q-bit code words (eachcode word having an 8 bit payload), and transmit the code words to thereceiver using a link clock having frequency (N/8)P. The receiverdecodes the received code words to recover the 8-bit fragments, unpacksthe fragments to recover the original sequence of N-bit video datawords, and recovers the original pixel clock (having frequency P) fromthe color mode data and link clock. The receiver must use the samesequence for unpacking that the transmitter used for packing, and thepacking and unpacking sequences must be exactly synchronized.

In contrast with other possible solutions to the problem of how totransmit N-bit video data words (where N≠K) over a serial link thattransmits encoded K-bit words, the inventive approach wastes nobandwidth and can deal with pixel counts and blanking counts that arenot exact multiples of the packing group size.

Other aspects of the invention are systems that include a serial link, areceiver, and any embodiment of the inventive transmitter. Other aspectsof the invention are receivers for use in such systems, and methodsperformed by any embodiment of inventive transmitter, system, orreceiver. In preferred embodiments, the transmitted fragments of videodata (each indicative of an 8-bit video word) are encoded and then codewords indicative of the encoded fragments are transmitted.

In a class of embodiments, the serial link is a TMDS link. The originalTMDS link specification provides for transmission of 24-bit RGB pixelsby assigning each of three 8-bit color components (red, green and blue)to each of three differential data channels (wire pairs sometimesreferred to as “lanes”). Each 8-bit component is encoded as a 10-bitcode word, the 10-bit code words for each color component aretransmitted serially over a specific one of the lanes and decoded to 8bits separately from the other lanes, and each set of three decodedcomponents is reassembled into a pixel after decoding. In someembodiments in which the serial link is a TMDS link, each transmitterlane operable to transmit 8-bit words of video component data as 10-bitTMDS code words over a differential wire pair of the TMDS link using alink clock having frequency P is also operable (in at least one othermode) in accordance with the invention to transmit M*8/N-member groupsof N-bit words of video data (where N≠8) as M-fragment groups of 10-bitTMDS code words (each codeword having an 8 bit payload) using a linkclock having frequency (N/8)P. The N-bit words (each of which istypically a Red, Green, or Blue color component) are broken into pieces(each piece having size not larger than 8 bits) and the pieces are thenpacked into 8 bit fragments for encoding as TMDS code words (symbols).

For a given color depth parameter N, N-bit video words are packed into8-bit fragments (with 100% efficiency) with a repeating cycle inaccordance with preferred embodiments of the invention. For example, ifN=10, the 10-bit red color components of four consecutive pixels of RGBvideo data are packed into a five-fragment group (each fragmentconsisting of 8 bits so that 8 bits per fragment*5 fragments pergroup=40 bits per group) sufficient to carry the 10-bit red componentsof the four pixels. A similar process is also applied to the green andblue components of the pixels. For another example, if N=12, the 12-bitred color components of two consecutive pixels of RGB video data arepacked into a three-fragment group (each fragment consisting of 8 bits,so that 8 bits per fragment*3 fragments per group=24 bits per group)sufficient to carry the 12-bit red components of the two pixels. Suchpacking does not waste any bandwidth.

Although some embodiments pack three N-bit components of a D-bit pixelseparately, the invention also applies equally to embodiments that donot separate data words or pixels into components prior to packing. Noris the invention limited to links that use a specific lane count. Ingeneral, the invention supports sending D-bit words over L lanes usinggroups of M fragments of K bits each, where each fragment group containsM*L*K bits, carrying W=M*L*K/D words per group, where M, L, K, W and Dare all integers.

In preferred embodiments, packing state machine sequences implemented bythe inventive transmitter are carefully designed so that they can switchfrom packing pixel fragments to passing unpacked blanking characters andback again at any boundary (not just at packing group boundaries). Thisis useful because some common standard television timings have pixel orblanking counts that are not exact multiples of 4 pixels (the packinggroup size for 10-bit components).

Packing phase data and color mode data (described above) are transmittedover a serial link in any of a variety of ways in various embodiments ofthe invention. For example, during blanking intervals, DVI-compliantembodiments of the inventive transmitter can transmit TMDS code wordsindicative of two control bits over each of the three data channels of aTMDS link (a total of six control bits per link clock cycle), can usetwo of these bits as horizontal and vertical sync bits, and can use someor all of the other four bits (CTL0, CTL1, CTL2, CTL3) as packing phasedata and optionally also color mode data. For another example, duringportions of blanking intervals known as data islands, HDMI-compliantembodiments of the inventive transmitter can transmit packets includingencoded auxiliary data (e.g., encoded audio data) and control bits overdata channels of a TMDS link. In accordance with the present invention,some such packets can include packing phase data and/or color mode data.

With reference again to a class of embodiments of the invention in whichthe serial link is a TMDS link and the transmitter and receiver areDVI-compliant, 3N-bit input video words (pixels) are typically clockedinto the transmitter using a pixel clock having frequency P(alternatively, they could be generated in the transmitter in asubsystem that is clocked by a pixel clock). Three streams of TMDS codewords are generated in response to each 3N-bit pixel. Typically, one ofthe streams of TMDS code words is indicative of red color componentdata, another of green color component data, and another of blue colorcomponent data. Each TMDS code word stream is transmitted over adifferent channel (Channel 0, Channel 1, or Channel 2) of the TMDS linkusing a link clock having frequency (N/8)P.

In preferred embodiments, a transmitter that embodies the invention isoperable in an 8-bit mode to perform conventional TMDS encoding of videodata (to generate a 10-bit TMDS code word in response to each 8-bitcomponent of 24-bit video data) and transmit the encoded data over aserial link (e.g., a DVI or HDMI link), and is also operable in at leastone N-bit mode (where N≠8) to generate a 10-bit TMDS code word inresponse to each N-bit component of 3N-bit video data and transmit theencoded data over a serial link.

In some such embodiments, the transmitter in the 8-bit mode receives orgenerates 24-bit video data pixels at rate P (each pixel comprising an8-bit Red component, an 8-bit Green component, and an 8-bit Bluecomponent) and transmits TMDS code words indicative of the pixels over aDVI or HDMI link (or other serial link) at rate P. The transmitter isalso operable in one or more of:

an 18-bit pixel mode in which it receives or generates 18-bit video dataat rate P (e.g., pixels each consisting of a 6-bit Red component, a6-bit Green component, and a 6-bit Blue component), and transmits TMDScode words indicative of the video data over the link at a rate of (¾)P;

a 30-bit pixel mode in which it receives or generates 30-bit video datapixels at rate P (each consisting of a 10-bit Red component, a 10-bitGreen component, and a 10-bit Blue component) and transmits TMDS codewords indicative of the video data over the link at a rate of ( 5/4)P;

a 36-bit pixel mode in which it receives or generates 36-bit video datapixels at rate P (each consisting of a 12-bit Red component, a 12-bitGreen component, and a 12-bit Blue component) and transmits TMDS codewords indicative of the video data over the link at a rate of ( 3/2)P;

and a 48-bit pixel mode in which it receives or generates 48-bit videodata pixels at rate P (each consisting of a 16-bit Red component, a16-bit Green component, and a 16-bit Blue component) and transmits TMDScode words indicative of the video data over the link at a rate of 2P.

In some embodiments, a transmitter operable in an M-bit pixel mode(where M≠8, and M=L*P, where L and P are integers) is optionally alsooperable in a P-bit pixel mode in which it receives or generates P-bitvideo data, packs and encodes sets of L consecutive P-bit video words(e.g., L consecutive P-bit color components) in the same manner asindividual M-bit components are packed and encoded in the M-bit pixelmode, and transmits code words (e.g., TMDS code words) indicative of thevideo data over a serial link.

In preferred embodiments, a receiver that embodies the invention isconfigured to receive conventional TMDS-encoded video data from a seriallink (e.g., a DVI or HDMI link) and decode the received TMDS code wordsto generate 24-bit video data (e.g., 24-bit pixels, each comprising an8-bit Red component, an 8-bit Green component, and an 8-bit Bluecomponent). The receiver is also operable in accordance with theinvention in one or more of the following modes:

an 18-bit pixel mode in which it receives TMDS-encoded video data from aserial link at rate (¾)P and decodes the received TMDS code words andunpacks the decoded bits to generate 18-bit video data at rate P (eachpixel of which consists of a 6-bit Red component, a 6-bit Greencomponent, and a 6-bit Blue component);

a 30-bit pixel mode in which it receives TMDS-encoded video data from aserial link at rate ( 5/4)P and decodes the received TMDS code words andunpacks the decoded bits to generate 30-bit video data at rate P (eachpixel of which consists of a 10-bit Red component, a 10-bit Greencomponent, and a 10-bit Blue component);

-   -   a 36-bit pixel mode in which it receives TMDS-encoded video data        from a serial link at rate ( 3/2)P and decodes the received TMDS        code words and unpacks the decoded bits to generate 36-bit video        data at rate P (each pixel of which consists of a 12-bit Red        component, a 12-bit Green component, and a 12-bit Blue        component);

and a 48-bit pixel mode in which it receives TMDS-encoded video datafrom a serial link at rate 2P and decodes the received TMDS code wordsand unpacks the decoded bits to generate 48-bit video data at rate P(each pixel of which consists of a 16-bit Red component, a 16-bit Greencomponent, and a 16-bit Blue component).

Typical embodiments of the inventive transmitter are operable in aconventional 8-bit mode in which source pixels are received or generatedat a source pixel clock rate, and the link clock rate matches the sourcepixel clock rate. In these embodiments, the transmitter is also operablein at least one N-bit mode (where N≠8) in which the link clock rateexceeds the source pixel clock rate. Typically, such a transmitteraccepts source video data and the pixel clock (from a source) andmultiplies the pixel clock by an appropriate factor to generate the linkclock. Alternatively, the transmitter may accept (or generate) a linkrate clock, and derive the pixel rate clock (for use by the pixel sourceand the transmitter) by dividing the link rate clock by an appropriatefactor. Typical embodiments of the inventive receiver receive the linkclock (and the encoded video data at the link clock rate), divide thelink clock to recover the pixel clock, recover the source pixel data bydecoding and unpacking the encoded video data, and output the recoveredsource pixel data at the pixel clock rate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional system including a DigitalVisual Interface (“DVI”) link.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system that that embodies the invention.

FIG. 3 is a state diagram of 8-bit mode operation of typical embodimentsof the inventive transmitter.

FIG. 4 is a state diagram of 10-bit mode operation of typicalembodiments of the inventive transmitter.

FIG. 5 is a state diagram of 12-bit mode operation of typicalembodiments of the inventive transmitter.

FIG. 6 is a state diagram of 16-bit mode operation of typicalembodiments of the inventive transmitter.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the inventivetransmitter.

FIG. 7A is a block diagram of an implementation of pixel packing bufferand multiplexing circuitry 104 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment of the inventivetransmitter.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the inventivereceiver.

FIG. 9A is a block diagram of an implementation of pixel unpackingbuffer and multiplexing circuitry 136 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a circuit for use in the clock divider ofthe FIG. 9 receiver.

FIG. 11 is a timing diagram of signals received and generated by theFIG. 10 circuit.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of another circuit for use in the clockdivider of the FIG. 9 receiver.

FIG. 13 is a timing diagram of signals received and generated by theFIG. 12 circuit.

FIG. 14 is a state diagram of 10-bit mode operation of an embodiment ofthe inventive transmitter that restarts the packing phase at the startof each line, implying the packing phase.

FIG. 15 is a state diagram of 10-bit mode operation of an embodiment ofthe inventive receiver that corresponds to the transmitter of FIG. 14.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In a class of embodiments, the invention is a system including anyembodiment of the inventive receiver, any embodiment of the inventivetransmitter, and a serial link between the transmitter and receiver.FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of such a system. The FIG. 2system includes video source 201 (which can be a personal computer orset-top box), monitor 202, and a serial link between transmitter 203 (ofsource 201) and monitor controller 205 (of monitor 202). Monitor 202includes a display subsystem 207 (including panel timing controller 208,column drivers 209, and a glass panel display 210, connected as shown)as well as monitor controller 205. Each of controllers 205 and 208 is atransceiver. Transmitter 203 of source 201 can be a graphics controlleror video processor.

The serial link between transmitter 203 and controller 205 has threechannels: channel V1 for transmitting to monitor controller 205 bitsindicative of an encoded stream of V-bit components of video data (e.g.,V-bit “Red” color components of video data); channel V2 for transmittingbits indicative of another encoded stream of V-bit components of videodata (e.g., V-bit “Green” color components of video data); and channelV3 for transmitting bits indicative of another encoded stream of V-bitcomponents of video data (e.g., V-bit “Blue” color components of videodata).

There is also another serial link (an “internal interface”) betweencontroller 205 and controller 208 having three channels: channel W1 fortransmitting to controller 208 bits indicative of an encoded stream ofI-bit components of video data (e.g., I-bit “Red” color components ofvideo data); channel W2 for transmitting bits indicative of anotherencoded stream of I-bit components of video data (e.g., I-bit “Green”color components of video data); and channel W3 for transmitting bitsindicative of another encoded stream of I-bit components of video data(e.g., I-bit “Blue” color components of video data).

The serial link between transmitter 203 and controller 205 can be anysuitable serial link (e.g., a DVI link, an HDMI link, or anotherTMDS-like link which may or more not have three lanes). The serial linkbetween controller 205 and controller 208 can also be any suitableserial link (e.g., a TMDS link or another TMDS-like link, not limited toone having three lanes).

A display interface between controller 208 and column drivers 209 iscapable of transmitting D-bit components of video data of a first type(e.g., D-bit “Red” color components of video data); D-bit components ofvideo data of a second type (e.g., D-bit “Green” color components ofvideo data); and D-bit components of video data of a third type (e.g.,D-bit “Blue” color components of video data).

The color depth parameters V, I, and D can have any value, butpreferably I≧(V+2), to allow accurate (and versatile) gamma and colorcorrection. Color depth parameter D for the display interface istypically set by the display cost point and technology type. Preferably,D satisfies D≧(V+2) for high quality applications. Preferably, D isequal to 10 or 12 for at least some high quality applications.

In typical implementations, each code word transmitted over each ofchannels V1, V2, V3, W1, W2, and W3 is indicative of an 8-bit video datacomponent. In operating modes in which color depth parameter V is equalto 8, transmitter 203 and controller 205 can operate in a conventionalmanner and the link between them can be a conventional link. Similarly,in operating modes in which color depth parameter I is equal to 8,controllers 205 and 208 can operate in a conventional manner the linkbetween them can be a conventional link.

However, in operating modes in which color depth parameter V>8 (e.g.,V=10 or V=12) and the link between transmitter 203 and controller 205 isa conventional link (and each code word transmitted over each ofchannels V1, V2, and V3 is indicative of an 8-bit component),transmitter 203 and controller 205 operate in accordance with theinvention. Specifically, transmitter 203 operates in an N-bit mode (inwhich N=V) in accordance with the invention to pack three sequences ofV-bit words of video data (e.g., a sequence each of V-bit Red, Green,and Blue components) into three streams of 8-bit fragments, encode the8-bit fragments, and transmit each stream of the encoded fragments tocontroller 205 over a different one of channels V1 V2, and V3.Controller 205 operates in accordance with the invention to decode eachreceived (encoded) fragment and unpack each stream of decoded 8-bitfragments into a sequence of V-bit words (if no errors are present).

Similarly, in operating modes in which color depth parameter I>8 (e.g.,I=10 or I=12) and the link between controllers 205 and 208 is aconventional link (and each code word transmitted over each of channelsW1, W2, and W3 is indicative of an 8-bit component), controllers 205 and208 operate in accordance with the invention. Specifically, controller205 operates as a transmitter in an N-bit mode (in which N=I) inaccordance with the invention to pack three sequences of I-bit words (ofthe video data received from source 201) into three streams of 8-bitfragments, encode the 8-bit fragments, and transmit each stream of theencoded fragments to controller 208 over a different one of channels W1,W2, and W3. Controller 208 operates in accordance with the invention todecode each received (encoded) fragment, and to unpack each stream ofdecoded 8-bit fragments into a sequence of I-bit words (if no errors arepresent).

In a class of embodiments, the invention is a transmitter configured topack a sequence of N-bit words of video data (where N≠8) into a sequenceof 8-bit fragments, to encode the 8-bit fragments, and to transmit theencoded fragments to a receiver over a serial link, where the seriallink is configured to transmit encoded, 8-bit video data words. Inpreferred embodiments, the color depth parameter N is 10, 12, or 16. Inaccordance with the invention, the transmitted data are indicative of asequence of M-fragment groups (each group consisting of M fragments),and the “j” th fragment in each group (where 1≦j≦M) has a phase withinthe group. Preferably, the transmitter is configured to transmit (overthe link) packing phase data indicative of the phase of the mostrecently transmitted fragment, to allow the receiver to decode theencoded data (thereby recovering the fragments) and unpack the recoveredfragments in phase with the packing by the transmitter.

In typical embodiments (e.g., those of FIG. 7 and FIG. 8), thetransmitter is operable in any of at least two different color depthmodes, the color depth parameter N has a different value in each mode,and the transmitter is configured to transmit (over the serial link) theencoded fragments, packing phase data, and “color mode” data indicativeof the color depth mode in which the transmitter currently operates. Insome such embodiments, the transmitter is operable in an 8-bit mode totransmit 8-bit words of video data (encoded as Q-bit code words) to areceiver over the serial link using a link clock having frequency P isalso operable in at least one other mode in accordance with theinvention to pack N-bit words (where N>8) of video data (typicallyclocked into the transmitter using a pixel clock having frequency P)into 8-bit fragments, encode the fragments as Q-bit code words (eachcode word having an 8 bit payload), and transmit the code words to thereceiver using a link clock having frequency (N/8)P. In accordance withthe invention, the receiver decodes the received code words to recoverthe 8-bit fragments, unpacks the fragments to recover the originalsequence of N-bit video data words, and recovers the original pixelclock (having frequency P) from the color mode data and link clock. Thereceiver must use the same sequence for unpacking that the transmitterused for packing, and the packing and unpacking sequences must beexactly synchronized.

In a class of embodiments, the serial link is a TMDS link. In some suchembodiments (e.g., those of FIG. 7 and FIG. 8), a transmitter operableto transmit 8-bit words of video data as 10-bit TMDS code words over theTMDS link using a link clock having frequency P is also operable (in atleast one other mode) in accordance with the invention to transmit N-bitwords of video data (where N>8) as 10-bit TMDS code words (each codewordhaving an 8 bit payload) using a link clock having frequency (N/8)P. TheN-bit words (each of which is typically a Red, Green, or Blue colorcomponent) are broken into pieces (each piece having size not largerthan 8 bits) and the pieces are then packed into 8 bit fragments forencoding as TMDS code words.

In preferred embodiments (e.g., those to be described with reference toFIGS. 3-6), packing state machine sequences implemented by the inventivetransmitter are carefully designed so that they can switch from packingpixel fragments to passing unpacked blanking characters (e.g., codewords indicative of color mode and/or packing phase data) and back againat any boundary (not just at packing group boundaries). This is usefulbecause some standard television timings have pixel or blanking countsthat are not exact multiples of 4 pixels (the packing group size for10-bit components).

Packing phase data and color mode data (described above) are transmittedover a serial link in any of a variety of ways in various embodiments ofthe invention. For example, during blanking intervals, a DVI-compliantimplementation of transmitter 100 of FIG. 7 transmits TMDS code wordsindicative of two control bits over each of the three data channels of aTMDS link (a total of six control bits per link clock cycle), and cantransmit two of these bits as horizontal and vertical sync bits and twoof the other four bits (CTL0, CTL1, CTL2, CTL3) as packing phase dataand color mode data, as described below. For another example, duringportions of blanking intervals known as data islands, HDMI-compliantembodiments of the inventive transmitter can transmit packets includingencoded auxiliary (e.g., audio) data, other data, and control bits overdata channels of a TMDS link. In accordance with the present invention,some such packets can include packing phase data and/or color mode data.

In embodiments of the inventive system in which the serial link is aTMDS link and the transmitter and receiver are DVI-compliant, 3N-bitinput pixels are clocked into the transmitter using a pixel clock havingfrequency P (or the pixels are generated in the transmitter in asubsystem that is clocked by a pixel clock). Three streams of TMDS codewords are generated in response to each 3N-bit pixel. Typically, one ofthe streams of TMDS code words is indicative of red color componentdata, another of green color component data, and another of blue colorcomponent data. Each TMDS code word stream is transmitted over adifferent channel (Channel 0, Channel 1, or Channel 2) of the TMDS linkusing a link clock having frequency (N/8)P. When N≠8, N-bit componentsof the input video data are packed into groups of fragments (F fragmentsper group, 8 bits per fragment). Typically, less significant pixel bitsare packed before more significant pixel bits. Each fragment is thenTMDS encoded for transmission. The receiver performs the inverse processto decode and unpack the received data.

For a given color depth parameter N, preferred embodiments of theinventive transmitter (e.g., preferred implementations of transmitter100 of FIG. 7) pack N-bit video words into 8-bit fragments (with 100%efficiency) with a repeating cycle. For example, if N=10, each fourconsecutive color components of RGB video data (each component being a10-bit Red component, 10-bit Green component, or 10-bit Blue component)are packed into a five-fragment group (each fragment consisting of 8bits so that 8 bits per fragment*5 fragments per group=40 bits pergroup). For another example, if N=12, each two consecutive colorcomponents of RGB video data (each component being a 12-bit Redcomponent, 12-bit Green component, or 12-bit Blue component) are packedinto a three-fragment group (each fragment consisting of 8 bits, so that8 bits per fragment*3 fragments per group=24 bits per group). Suchpacking does not waste any bandwidth.

We next describe in more detail the manner in which a class ofembodiments of the inventive transmitter pack video data into groups of8-bit fragments, for TMDS encoding and transmission over a conventionalTMDS link.

While DE=1 (during an active video interval) during 8-bit mode operationof a transmitter in such class, each transmitted TMDS code wordcommunicates 8 bits of video data per link clock cycle. While DE=1during N-bit mode operation (for N>8) of typical embodiments of theinventive transmitter, N-bit video words are packed into groups of bits(each group consisting of G video words) and each group is sliced into Fdata fragments (each fragment consisting of 8 bits). The fragments canbe asserted to conventional TMDS encoder/serializer circuitry (e.g.,encoder/serializer circuitry 108 of FIG. 7) and 10-bit TMDS code wordsoutput from the TMDS encoder/serializer circuitry in response to thefragments transmitted over a serial link using a link clock havingappropriate frequency. The values of the color depth parameter “N”(sometimes referred to as “color depth”), and the parameters G and F,are related as shown in Table 1 during N-bit mode operation: TABLE 1Color Depth G words/group F fragments/group 8 1 1 10 4 5 12 2 3 16 1 2

In typical embodiments, the inventive transmitter transmits the linkclock and encoded fragments, and also transmits special control codes(including packing phase data indicative of phase of the most recentlytransmitted fragment, and optionally also color mode data indicative ofthe transmitter's current color depth mode). Typically, the inventivereceiver includes standard TMDS deserializer/decoder circuitry and isconfigured to recover the special control codes, link clock, and 8-bitfragments transmitted over a TMDS link. Based on the current color depthand group phase, the receiver accumulates the 8-bit fragments intogroups, which are then unpacked to recover the original deep color(N-bit) video words.

For each color depth mode of preferred embodiments of the invention, theappropriate one of Tables 2, 3, 4, and 5 specifies the group size andorder in which the transmitter presents 8-bit fragments to each of thethree data channels of a standard TMDS encoder. The receiver performsthe reverse process. The left column of each of Tables 2-5 identifiesthe fragment(s) of a group and the other columns identify the 8 bits ofeach fragment. Each row (“mPn”) represents the “n” th fragment(0≦n≦(F-1)) for each F-fragment group for color depth m (note that colordepth “m” is alternative notation for the above-mentioned color depthparameter “N”). The rows of each of Tables 2-5 are arranged in order oftransmission (so that the top row represents the first fragment of agroup to be transmitted and the bottom row represents the last fragmentof the group to be transmitted. Each entry “Xy” in each table indicatesbit y of video word X that is presented to the encoder. Bit 0 is theleast significant bit. The m-bit video words are labeled A, B, C, D (asneeded) to identify the “G” members of each group (e.g., the group forcolor depth m=10 has four members A, B, C, and D). Word A is thefirst-transmitted word of each group. TABLE 2 (8-bit mode) (G = 1; F= 1) Fragment Bit 0 Bit 1 Bit 2 Bit 3 Bit 4 Bit 5 Bit 6 Bit 7 8P0 A0 A1A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7

TABLE 3 (10-bit mode) (G = 4; F = 5) Fragment Bit 0 Bit 1 Bit 2 Bit 3Bit 4 Bit 5 Bit 6 Bit 7 10P0 A0 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 10P1 A8 A9 B0 B1 B2B3 B4 B5 10P2 B6 B7 B8 B9 C0 C1 C2 C3 10P3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 D0 D1 10P4D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9

TABLE 4 (12-bit mode) (G = 2; F = 3) Fragment Bit 0 Bit 1 Bit 2 Bit 3Bit 4 Bit 5 Bit 6 Bit 7 12P0 A0 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 12P1 A8 A9 A10 A11B0 B1 B2 B3 12P2 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 B10 B11

TABLE 5 (16-bit mode) (G = 1; F = 2) Fragment Bit 0 Bit 1 Bit 2 Bit 3Bit 4 Bit 5 Bit 6 Bit 7 16P0 A0 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 16P1 A8 A9 A10 A11A12 A13 A14 A15

During the blanking intervals (when pixels are not being packed andtransmitted), the inventive transmitter can occasionally transmit ashort message containing packing phase data (indicative of phase of themost recently transmitted fragment) in order to enable the receiver toalign its unpacking sequence with the transmitter's packing sequence.The inventive transmitter can also use the same or additional messagesduring blanking intervals to send color depth mode data to ensure thatthe receiver operates in the same color depth as the transmitter, sothat the receiver uses the unpacking sequence that corresponds to thetransmitter packing sequence.

During a blanking interval (indicated by DE=0), a conventionalDVI-compliant transmitter transmits TMDS control code words instead ofTMDS pixel data code words. These TMDS control codes are sent once perlink clock cycle and are indicative of two control bits (C0, C1) overeach of the three data channels of a TMDS link, for a total of six bitsof control information per link clock cycle. DVI-compliant transmittersuse two of these six bits for horizontal and vertical sync information(HS, VS) and transmit code words indicative of this sync informationover one data channel (Channel 0), and reserve the other four bits(CTL0, CTL1, CTL2, CTL3). A DVI-compliant embodiment of the inventivetransmitter must use the standard (10-bit) TMDS control codes, so that astandard DVI-compliant receiver can accomplish proper framing.

In accordance with the invention, during N-bit mode operation (for anyvalue of N, including N=8) of a class of DVI-like embodiments, some orall of such bits CTL0, CTL1, CTL2, and CTL3 (indicated by code wordstransmitted over data Channels 1 and 2 of a TMDS link) can be used atcertain times during blanking to encode short link control messages(“LCMs”, to be described in more detail later in this description) tosend packing phase data (indicative of phase of the most recentlytransmitted fragment) and optionally also color mode data (indicative ofthe transmitter's current color depth mode).

In other embodiments of the invention, packing phase data and/or colormode data are transmitted over a serial link during video blanking inany of a variety of other ways. For example, during portions of blankingintervals known as data islands, HDMI-compliant embodiments of theinventive transmitter can transmit packets including encoded auxiliary(e.g., audio) data, other data, and control bits over some or all of thethree data channels of a TMDS link. In accordance with the invention,some such packets can include packing phase data and/or color mode data.An HDMI-compliant transmitter and receiver can distinguish between threeportions of each blanking interval (between active video intervals): aninitial portion (in which a data island preamble can be transmitted)followed by portion known as a data island followed by a final portion(in which a video preamble can be transmitted). Optionally, there aretwo or more data islands in a blanking interval. During the initial dataisland preamble of each blanking interval, repetitions of code wordsindicative of specific patterns of control bits CTL3, CTL2, CTL1, andCTL0, and optionally also initial bit patterns are transmitted. Duringthe video preamble of each blanking interval, repetitions of code wordsindicative of other specific patterns of control bits CTL3, CTL2, CTL1,and CTL0, and optionally also initial bit patterns are transmitted.

In the description of preferred embodiments (which can but need not beDVI-compliant), the terminology of DVI is used herein. In accordancewith DVI terminology, DE=0 indicates a blanking period and DE=1indicates an active video period in which pixels are transmitted. InFIGS. 3 through 6 (the packing and unpacking state diagrams), “DE=1” isused indicate that the next character to be transmitted is a pixel and“DE=0” is used to indicate that the next character is a blankingcharacter.

For each of several color depths, Tables 6-10 (set forth below) specifythe group size and the order in which typical embodiments (which can beDVI-compliant embodiments) of the inventive transmitter presenthorizontal and vertical sync codes to the TMDS encoder for Channel 0 ofa TMDS link (e.g., the bit in the C0 column of each row of each Table isHSYNC in DVI-compliant embodiments, and the bit in the C1 column of eachrow of each Table is VSYNC in DVI-compliant embodiments). Just likepixels, blanking (sync) codes are typically communicated to theinventive transmitter at the pixel rate P.

For deep color depths (N>8), the link clock is faster than the sourcepixel clock P. In order to carry the deeper color data, the link clockis set to (N/8)*P. For the cases shown, the number of link clock cyclesper group (of packed K-bit fragments of N-bit video data) is one morethan the number of pixel clock cycles (F-1) per group.

During blanking intervals of N-bit mode operation, one blanking codeindicative of a new sync bit pair (one HSYNC bit and one VSYNC bit)could be transmitted every link clock cycle (unlike deep color pixels,which require an extra link clock per group). Despite this, in order tomaintain a fixed ratio (N/8) of pixel clock cycles to link clock cycles,the transmitter only sends (F-1) new sync bit pairs per group of F linkclock cycles.

Thus, Tables 7, 9, and 10 indicate that in blanking intervals duringN-bit mode operation, when an F-fragment group is composed entirely ofblanking characters, the inventive transmitter transmits a group of Fblanking codes (labeled “mCn”, where n=0 to F-1) during F consecutivelink clock cycles, where each of F-1 of the blanking codes is indicativeof a new sync bit pair and the last blanking code transmitted in thegroup is indicative of the same sync bit pair as the previous code(states 10C4, 12C2 and 16C1 in Tables 7, 9 and 10 and FIGS. 4, 5 and 6).The receiver drops the last (repeated) blanking code of each such periodof F link clock cycles. As a result, sync bit pairs are recovered attheir original (pixel clock) rate.

When transitioning into or out of a blanking period, F-fragment groups(states n=0 to F-1) carrying a mixture of pixel fragments (labeled “mPn”in Tables 3-5) and blanking codes (labeled “mCn” or “mPCn” in Tables7-10) may occur. In such cases, the extra link clock cycle is alwaysused for pixel packing, regardless of whether the group starts or endswith pixel fragments.

Examples of mixed pixel/blanking groups for 10 bit mode include thefollowing sequences (visible in FIG. 4):

-   -   10P0, 10P1*, 10PC2, 10PC3, 10PC4 (pixel A; blanking T, U, V),    -   10P0, 10P1, 10P2*, 10PC3, 10PC4 (pixels A, B; blanking U, V),    -   10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3*, 10PC4 (pixels A, B, C; blanking V);    -   10C0, 10P1*, 0P2, 10P3, 10P4 (blanking S; pixels B, C, D),    -   10C0, 10C1, 10P2*, 10P3, 10P4 (blanking S, T; pixels C, D),    -   10C0, 10C1, 10C2, 10P3*, 10P4 (blanking S, T, U; pixel D);        where * indicates that only part of the pixel fragment contains        useful information. For example, in the first sequence, fragment        10P1* contains the remaining 2 bits of pixel A and 6 unused bits        that would have started pixel B had the switch to blanking        (DE=0) not occurred.

Similar examples for 12 bit mode include:

-   -   12P0, 12P1*, 12C2 (one pixel, one blanking) and    -   12C0, 12P1*, 12P2 (one blanking, one pixel).

Each entry “mCn” (or “mPCn”) in the left column of Table 6, 7, 8, 9, and10 represents a state of the inventive transmitter, where the index “n”is in the range 0≦n≦(F-1), where F is the number of fragments of videodata per group, and the index “m” indicates the color depth (note thatcolor depth “m” is alternative notation for the above-mentioned colordepth parameter “N”). Each entry “Xy” in each of the middle and rightcolumns of each table indicates bit y of a sync bit pair X to beencoded. Each sync bit pair X presented to the encoder of the inventivetransmitter is encoded as a TMDS code word that is transmitted overchannel CH0 of a TMDS link by the transmitter. (Bit 0 is the leastsignificant bit of the sync bit pair X (e.g., bit “S0” is lesssignificant than bit “S1”). TABLE 6 (8-bit mode) (G = 1; F = 1) Sync bitpair (to encoder) State C0 C1 8C0 S0 S1

TABLE 7 (10-bit mode) (G = 4; F = 5) (Table 7 is used if a packing groupstarts with a blanking character) Sync bit pair (to encoder) State C0 C110C0 S0 S1 10C1 T0 T1 10C2 U0 U1 10C3 V0 V1 10C4 V0 V1

TABLE 8 (10-bit mode) (G = 4; F = 5) (Table 8 is used if a packing groupstarts with a pixel and ends with a blanking character) (Bridge statesfor transition from fragment 10Pn to 10C0) Sync bit pair (to encoder)State C0 C1 10PC2 T0 T1 10PC3 U0 U1 10PC4 V0 V1

TABLE 9 (12-bit mode) (G = 2; F = 3) Sync bit pair (to encoder) State C0C1 12C0 S0 S1 12C1 T0 T1 12C2 T0 T1

TABLE 10 (16-bit mode) (G = 1; F = 2) Sync bit pair (to encoder) StateC0 C1 16C0 S0 S1 16C1 S0 S1

Table 8 indicates the bridge states (“mPCn”) necessary in the 10-bitmode for encoding the blanking portion of mixed groups that transitionfrom fragments of video data (during an active video interval) to syncbits (during a blanking interval). Such bridge states are required tomaintain the fixed pixel clock to link clock ratio when the packinggroup size G is greater than 2.

Typically, the transmitter operates in response to a DE signal whoserising and falling edges are aligned with edges of the pixel clock, andthe transmitter includes a FIFO (e.g., FIFO 101 of FIG. 7) that buffersthe video data to be packed and encoded, control bits (including syncbits) to be encoded, and a bit indicative of the DE signal. The video,control, and DE bits are clocked into the FIFO using the pixel clock andclocked out of the FIFO using the link clock (e.g., so that packingcircuitry operating in the link clock domain can pack groups of bits ofthe video data into fragments in accordance with the invention).

As indicated in FIG. 4 (to be described below), in response to a fallingedge (in the link clock domain) of the DE signal, the following encodedsync bits can be transmitted (by transmitter circuitry operating in thelink clock domain).

When DE changes to 0 just after the link clock cycle in which the secondfragment of a group (10P1) is presented to the encoder (completing thefirst and only pixel in a group of one pixel and three sync bit pairs),the second fragment is encoded and transmitted and then one link clocklater (state 10PC2 in FIG. 4 and Table 8) sync bits T0, T1 are presentedto the encoder, encoded and transmitted (during the blanking intervalcommencing on such falling edge of DE).

When DE changes to 0 just after the link clock cycle in which the thirdfragment of a group (10P2) is presented to the encoder (completing thesecond pixel in a group of two pixels and two sync bit pairs), the thirdfragment is encoded and transmitted and then one link clock later(10PC3) sync bits U0, U1 are presented to the encoder, encoded andtransmitted (during the blanking interval commencing on such fallingedge of DE).

When DE changes to 0 just after the link clock cycle in which the fourthfragment of a group (10P3) is presented to the encoder (completing thethird pixel in a group of three pixels and one sync bit pair), thefourth fragment is encoded and transmitted and then one link clock later(10PC4) sync bits V0, V1 are presented to the encoder, encoded andtransmitted (during the blanking interval commencing on such fallingedge of DE).

When DE changes to 0 just after the link clock cycle in which the finalfragment of a group (10P4) is presented to the encoder (i.e., when thepixel to blanking transition happens to occur at a group boundary), thefifth fragment of the pixel group is encoded and transmitted and thenone link clock later (10C0) sync bits S0, S1 (shown in the first row ofTable 7) are then presented to the encoder, encoded and transmitted(during the blanking interval commencing on such falling edge of DE).

With reference to FIGS. 3-6, we next describe operation of typicalembodiments of the inventive transmitter that enter the states shown inTables 6-10 and pack video bits into groups of the type shown in Tables2-5. For each color depth mode, the transmitter sequence starts at phase0, and then increments modulo the group size (which is the number, F, offragments per group) through the phases for each group of fragments.While DE=1, code words indicative of fragments mPn of video data aretransmitted. In response to a falling edge of DE, the transmitter entersone of states mCn or mPCn and (while DE=0) cycles through other ones ofstates mCn or mPCn. For example, in the 10-bit mode, if DE changes from1 to 0 when phase n is not changing to 0 (when the falling edge of DE isnot group aligned), the transmitter enters at least one of states mPCn(of Table 8) and proceeds through the mPCn states until leaving 10PC4and entering the loop of mCn states (of Table 7). If DE is restricted(as it is in preferred embodiments) such that the minimum duration of ablanking interval is four blanking characters, the minimum total numberof states mPCn and/or mCn entered during a blanking interval is four.

FIG. 3 is a state diagram of 8-bit mode operation of a class ofembodiments of the inventive transmitter that are configured to transmitdata over a TMDS link and to enter the state shown in Table 6 inblanking intervals. During 8-bit operation, the link clock rate matchesthe pixel clock rate. During each active video interval (when DE=1), thetransmitter transmits a code word indicative of an 8-bit video word(word “8P0” of Table 2) over each of data channels CH0, CH1, and CH2once per link clock cycle. During each link clock cycle of each blankinginterval, the transmitter remains in state “8C0” (in which it transmitsencoded sync bits S0, S1 of Table 6 over data channel CH0). In responseto a falling edge of DE, the transmitter's state machine asserts a pairof sync bits S0,S1 (shown in Table 6) to the transmitter's channel CH0encoder (which can be an element of a conventional TMDS encoder) ratherthan 8-bits of video data. In response to each rising edge of DE, thetransmitter asserts a sequence of 8-bit video data words 8P0 (one videodata word per link clock cycle) to the channel CHO encoder.

A transmitter that implements the state diagram of FIG. 4 (or FIG. 5 orFIG. 6) typically includes a FIFO that buffers the video data to bepacked and encoded, control bits to be encoded, and a DE bit. The video,control, and DE bits are clocked into the FIFO using a pixel clock andclocked out of the FIFO using a link clock (having higher rate than thepixel clock).

For packing modes with pixel group size G greater than 2 (such as 10 bitmode, FIG. 4), G-1 bridge states (“mPCn”) are necessary to handle groupsthat begin with pixels and end with blanking. Once these bridge stateshave been entered (start of blanking), the balance of that group mustcontain blanking characters. This leads to a requirement that forpacking modes with G>2, the minimum blanking period (DE=0) is G-1blanking characters (e.g., minimum blanking of 3 characters for 10 bitmode). This minimum can be achieved by adding a test for DE in the finalPC state (e.g., 10PC4 in FIG. 4) and branching to the first pixel state(mP0) if DE=1 or the first blanking state (mC0) if DE=0. As drawn, FIG.4 omits this extra test for DE for simplicity; in that case, DE ispreferably restricted so that DE can be low for not less than 4consecutive link clock cycles (i.e., so that the minimum duration ofeach blanking interval is four sync bit pairs). This minor restrictionon DE is needed to ensure that the transmitter can be implemented in asimple manner and also be capable (during 10-bit mode operation, asindicated in FIG. 4) of resuming transmission of video data (in responseto a rising edge of DE) with correct phase in the event that theprevious falling edge of DE was not aligned to a group boundary, and toensure that the receiver can be implemented in a simple manner and alsobe capable of recovering the transmitted video with correct phase during10-bit mode operation.

FIG. 4 is a state diagram of 10-bit mode operation of typicalembodiments of the inventive transmitter that are configured to transmitdata over a TMDS link, pack video bits into groups of the type shown inTable 3, and to enter states shown in Tables 7 and 8 during blankingintervals. During the 10-bit mode of these embodiments, the link clockrate is the pixel clock rate multiplied by 1.25 (e.g., by PLL 106 ofFIG. 7). Typically, the transmitter includes a FIFO and receives a DEsignal, a pixel clock, video data, and control bits from a source, theDE signal's rising and falling edges are aligned with edges of the pixelclock, and the video data and control bits are clocked into the FIFOusing the pixel clock and clocked out of the FIFO using the link clock.Packing and encoding of the video data are performed in the link clockdomain.

The transmitter is implemented with a state machine for implementing thestate diagram of FIG. 4. The state machine ensures that thetransmitter's circuitry for encoding and transmitting fragments of videodata and control bit (e.g., sync bit) pairs (referred to as thetransmitter's “encoder) operates as follows.

During sustained active video intervals (while DE=1), the transmittertransmits (over each of data channels CH0, CH1, and CH2) a repeatingsequence of code words indicative of the following fragments of videodata: 10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3, and 10P4. This sequence packs groups of 4pixels into 5 link clock cycles.

In response to a falling edge of DE (in the link clock domain) thatoccurs in the link clock cycle just after the second (8-bit) fragment ofa group is presented to the encoder, the transmitter enters thefollowing sequence of states: a first state in which it transmits codeword indicative of video data fragment 10P1 (an encoded second fragment)over each of data channels CH0, CH1, and CH2; then (in the next linkclock cycle) a state “10PC2” in which the transmitter does not transmitencoded video data and instead transmits an encoded sync bit pair T0,T1over data channel CH0; then (in the next link clock cycle) a state“10PC3” in which the transmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pairU0,U1 over data channel CH0; then (in the next link clock cycle) a state“10PC4” in which the transmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pairV0,V1 over data channel CH0; and then (in the next link clock cycle) astate “10C0” in which the transmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pairS0,S1 over data channel CH0. DE must remain low during transition states10PC2, 10PC3, 10PC4 and the first instance of blanking state 10C0,leading to the previously mentioned minimum requirement of 4 sync bitpairs of blanking for the design of FIG. 4 (note that if a DE=1 arc isadded from state 10PC4 to state 10P0, the absolute minimum of 3 blankingcodes would be achieved).

Typically, DE remains low for many more cycles. During subsequent linkclock cycles in which DE remains low, the transmitter enters a repeatingsequence of states “10C0,” “10C1,” “10C2,” 10C3,” and “10C4.” At anypoint in this sequence (after the minimum has been satisfied), if DErises after state 10Cn, the next state will be as follows:

If DE rises after 10C0 (blanking code S), 10C0 will be followed by 10P1(start of pixel B; note that the spare bits from pixel A are not used);

If DE rises after 10C1 (blanking code T), 10C1 will be followed by 10P2(start of pixel C; note that the spare bits from pixel B are not used);

If DE rises after 10C2 (blanking code U), 10C2 will be followed by 10P3(start of pixel D; note that the spare bits from pixel C are not used)

If DE rises after 10C3 (blanking code V), 10C3 will be followed by 10C4(a repetition of blanking code V), which is then followed by 10P0 (startof pixel A). The transmitter's repetition of blanking code V maintainsthe fixed ratio (1.25) of link clock to pixel clock. The receiver isimplemented to discard (drop) the repetition of the blanking code V, sothat the recovered data is at the pixel clock rate.

Still with reference to FIG. 4, in response to a falling edge of DE (inthe link clock domain) that occurs in the link clock cycle just afterthe third (8-bit) fragment of a group is presented to the encoder, thetransmitter enters the following sequence of states: a first state inwhich it transmits code word indicative of video data fragment 10P2 (anencoded third fragment) over each of data channels CH0, CH1, and CH2;then (in the next link clock cycle), a state “10PC3” in which thetransmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pair U0,U1 over data channelCH0; then (in the next link clock cycle) a state “10PC4” in which thetransmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pair V0,V1 over data channelCH0; and then (in the next link clock cycle) a state “10C0” in which thetransmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pair S0,S1 over data channelCH0. DE must remain low during transition states 10PC3, 10PC4 and thefirst instance of blanking state 10C0 for the design of FIG. 4.

DE remains typically low for many more cycles and the transmitter entersa repeating sequence of states “10C0,” “10C1,” “10C2,” “10C3, ” and“10C4” which ends whenever DE becomes high, as described above.

Similarly (still with reference to FIG. 4), in response to a fallingedge of DE (in the link clock domain) that occurs in the link clockcycle just after the fourth (8-bit) fragment of a group is presented tothe encoder, the transmitter enters the following sequence of states: afirst state in which it transmits code word indicative of video datafragment 10P3 (an encoded fourth fragment) over each of data channelsCH0, CH1, and CH2; then (in the next link clock cycle) a state “10PC4”in which the transmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pair V0,V1 overdata channel CH0; and then (in the next link clock cycle) a state “10C0”in which the transmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pair S0,S1 overdata channel CH0. DE must remain low during transition state 10PC4 andthe first instance of blanking state 10C0 for the design of FIG. 4.Again, the transmitter enters a repeating sequence of states “10C0,”“10C1,” “10C2,” “10C3,” and “10C4” which ends whenever DE becomes high,as described above.

Similarly (still with reference to FIG. 4), in response to a fallingedge of DE (in the link clock domain) that occurs in the link clockcycle just after the fifth (8-bit) fragment of a group is presented tothe encoder, the transmitter enters the following sequence of states: afirst state in which it transmits code word indicative of video datafragment 10P4 (an encoded fifth fragment) over each of data channelsCH0, CH1, and CH2; and then (in the next link clock cycle) a state“10C0” in which the transmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pair S0,S1over data channel CH0. Again, the transmitter enters a repeatingsequence of states “10C0,” “10C1,” “10C2,” “10C3,” and “10C4” which endswhenever DE becomes high, as described above.

The state diagram of FIG. 4 defines group sequences of five states 10x0through 10x4 (where “x” may be P or C, or PC). Note that for each fivestate sequence, the progression is always 10x0, 10x1, 10x2, 10x3, 10x4,where the suffixes 0 through 4 represent the group “phase”. Thefollowing groups are possible:

-   -   10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3, 10P4 (four pixels),    -   10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3, 10PC4 (three pixels; one blanking code),    -   10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10PC3, 10PC4 (two pixels; two blanking),    -   10P0, 10P1, 10PC2, 10PC3, 10PC4 (one pixel; three blanking),    -   10C0, 10C1, 10C2, 10C3, 10C4 (four blanking and a repetition),    -   10C0, 10C1, 10C2, 10P3, 10P4 (three blanking and one pixel),    -   10C0, 10C1, 10P2, 10P3, 10P4 (two blanking and two pixels), and    -   10C0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3, 10P4 (one blanking and three pixels).

An exemplary sequence of groups of states entered (and video data andsync bit pairs asserted to the encoder) follows for the artificiallyabbreviated example of a video format that has 5 pixels and 4 blankingcodes per line (using the notation that commas separate fragments; Aindicates two video bits from a first fragment of a video data group; Bindicates two video bits from a second fragment of the video data group;C indicates two video bits from a third fragment of the video datagroup; D indicates two video bits from a fourth fragment of the videodata group; and S, T, U, and V are sync bit pairs):

first group (which carries four pixels from the first line): AAAA, ABBB,BBCC, CCCD, DDDD (i.e., states 10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3, 10P4);

second group (which carries the last pixel and the first three blankingcharacters from the first line): AAAA, A---, T, U, V (i.e., states 10P0,10P1, 10PC2, 10PC3, 10PC4);

third group (which carries the final blanking character of the firstline and the first three pixels of the second line): S, -BBB, BBCC,CCCD, DDDD (i.e., states 10C0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3, and 10P4);

fourth group (which carries the last two pixels and the first twoblanking characters of the second line): AAAA, ABBB, BB--, U, V (states10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10PC3, 10PC4);

fifth group (which carries the last two blanking characters of thesecond line and the first two pixels of the third line): S, T, --CC,CCCD, DDDD (i.e., states 10C0, 10C1, 10P2, 10P3, 10P4);

sixth group (which carries the last three pixels and the first blankingcharacter of the third line): AAAA, ABBB, BBCC, CCC-, V (i.e., states10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3, 10PC4);

seventh group (which carries the last three blanking characters of thethird line and the first pixel of the fourth line): S, T, U, ---D, DDDD(i.e., states 10C0, 10C1, 10C2, 10P3, 10P4);

eighth group (which carries the last four pixels of the fourth line):AAAA, ABBB, BBCC, CCCD, DDDD (i.e., states 10P0, 10P1, 10P2, 10P3,10P4); and

ninth group (which carries the four blanking characters of the fourthline along with a repetition of the last blanking character to maintainthe fixed 1.25 link to pixel clock ratio): S, T, U, V, (V) (i.e., states10C0, 10C1, 10C2, 10C3, 10C4).

Note that this sequence of nine groups will repeat every four lines (theninth group is followed by another first group). Each group carries atotal of 4 pixel clock cycles of data (either pixels or blankingcharacters) in 5 link clock cycles. Nine groups can carry 36 datacharacters, which is sufficient for four lines of 9 data characters (5pixels and 4 blanking characters). Also note that, in general, lines endor start in mid-group, except at the point where the pattern repeats. Ifthe total count (pixels plus blanking characters) per line is X, thepattern will repeat every 4 lines if X mod 4 is 1 or 3, every 2 lines ifX mod 4 is 2, or every line if X mod 4=0, where 4 is the group size inpixel clock cycles for the 10-bit color mode (T=5+4=9 for this case, sothe pattern repeats every fourth line.)

FIG. 5 is a state diagram of 12-bit mode operation of typicalembodiments of the inventive transmitter that pack video bits intogroups of the type shown in Table 4, and enter the states shown in Table9 during blanking intervals. During the 12-bit mode of theseembodiments, the link clock rate exceeds the pixel clock rate (the linkclock rate is the pixel clock rate multiplied by 1.5). Typically, thetransmitter includes a FIFO and receives a DE signal, a pixel clock,video data, and control bits from a source, the DE signal's rising andfalling edges are aligned with edges of the pixel clock, and the videodata and control bits are clocked into the FIFO using the pixel clockand clocked out of the FIFO using the link clock. Packing and encodingof the video data are performed in the link clock domain.

The transmitter is implemented with a state machine for implementing thestate diagram of FIG. 5. The state machine ensures that thetransmitter's circuitry for encoding and transmitting fragments of videodata and control bit (e.g., sync bit) pairs (referred to as thetransmitter's “encoder) operates as follows.

During active video intervals (while DE=1), the transmitter transmits(over each of data channels CH0, CH1, and CH2) a repeating sequence ofcode words indicative of the following fragments of video data: 12P0,12P1, and 12P3. This sequence packs groups of 2 pixels into 3 link clockcycles.

In response to a falling edge of DE (in the link clock domain) thatoccurs in the link clock cycle just after the second (8-bit) fragment ofa group is presented to the encoder, the transmitter enters thefollowing sequence of states: a first state in which it transmits a codeword indicative of video data fragment 12P1 (an encoded second fragment)over each of data channels CH0, CH1, and CH2; then (in the next linkclock cycle) a state “12C2” in which the transmitter does not transmitencoded video data and instead transmits an encoded sync bit pair T0,T1over data channel CH0; and then (in the next link clock cycle) a state“12C0” in which the transmitter transmits an encoded sync bit pair S0,S1over data channel CH0. During subsequent link clock cycles in which DEremains low, the transmitter enters a repeating sequence of states“12C0,” “12C1,” and “12C2.” At any point in this sequence (after theminimum has been satisfied), if DE rises after state 12Cn, the nextstate will be as follows:

-   -   If DE rises after 12C0 (blanking code S), 12C0 will be followed        by 12P1 (start of pixel B; note that the spare bits from pixel A        are not used); and    -   If DE rises after 12C1 (blanking code T), 12C1 will be followed        by 12C2 (a repetition of blanking code T), which is then        followed by 12P0 (start of pixel A). The transmitter's        repetition of blanking code T maintains the fixed ratio (1.5) of        link clock cycles to pixel clock cycles. The receiver is        implemented to discard (drop) the repetition of the blanking        code T, so that the recovered data is at the pixel clock rate.

Similarly, in response to a falling edge of DE (in the link clockdomain) that occurs in the link clock cycle just after the thirdfragment of a group is presented to the encoder, the transmitter entersthe following sequence of states: a first state in which it transmits acode word indicative of video data fragment 12P2 (an encoded thirdfragment) over each of data channels CH0, CH1, and CH2; then (in thenext link clock cycle) a state “12C0” (in which the transmitter does nottransmit encoded video data and instead transmits an encoded sync bitpair S0,S1. During subsequent link clock cycles in which DE remains low,the transmitter enters a repeating sequence of states “12C0,” “12C1,”and “12C2,” which ends whenever DE becomes high, as described above.

The state diagram of FIG. 5 defines group sequences of three states 12x0through 12x2 (where “x” may be P or C). Note that for each three statesequence, the progression is always 12x0, 12x1, 12x2, where the suffixes0 through 2 represent the group “phase”. The following groups arepossible:

-   -   12P0, 12P1, 12P2 (two pixels),    -   12P0, 12P1, 12C2 (one pixel; one blanking character),    -   12C0, 12C1, 12C2 (two blanking and a repetition), and    -   12C0, 12P1, 10P2 (one blanking and one pixel).

An exemplary sequence of groups of states entered (and video data andsync bit pairs asserted to the encoder) follows for the artificiallyabbreviated example of a video format that has 5 pixels and 2 blankingcodes per line (using the notation that commas separate fragments; Aindicates four video bits from a first fragment of a video data group; Bindicates four video bits from a second fragment of the video datagroup; and S and T are sync bit pairs):

first group (which carries the first two pixels from the first line):AA, AB, BB (states 12P0, 12P1, 12P2);

second group (which carries the next two pixels from the first line):AA, AB, BB (12P0, 12P1, 12P2);

third group (which carries the last pixel and the first blankingcharacter from the first line): AA, A-, T (states 12P0, 12P1, and 12C2);

fourth group (which carries the last blanking character from the firstline and the first pixel from the second line): S,-B, BB (states 12C0,12P1, and 12P2);

fifth group (which carries the next two pixels from the second line):AA, AB, BB (states 12P0, 12P1, 12P2);

sixth group (which carries the last two pixels from the second line):AA, AB, BB (states 12P0, 12P1, 12P2); and

seventh group (carries the two blanking characters from the second linealong with a repetition of the last blanking character to maintain thefixed 1.5 link to pixel clock cycle ratio): S, T, (T) (states 12C0,12C1, 12C2).

Note that this sequence of seven groups will repeat every two lines (theseventh group is followed by another first group). Each group carries atotal of 2 pixel clock cycles of data (either pixels or blankingcharacters) in 3 link clocks cycles. Seven groups can carry 14 datacharacters, which is sufficient for 2 lines of 7 data (5 pixels and 2blanking characters). Also note that, in general, lines end or start inmid-group, except at the point where the pattern repeats. If the totalcount (pixels plus blanking characters) per line is X, the pattern willrepeat every other line if X mod 2 is 1, or every line if X mod 2=0,where 2 is the group size in pixel clocks for 12 bit color mode.(T=5+2=7 for this case, so the pattern repeats every other line.)

FIG. 6 is a state diagram of 16-bit mode operation of typicalembodiments of the inventive transmitter that pack video bits intogroups of the type shown in Table 5, and enters the states shown inTable 10 in blanking intervals. FIG. 6 assumes that the link clock rateis twice the pixel clock rate, and that DE can change only at the pixelclock rate. As indicated in FIG. 6, during each active video interval(when DE=1), the transmitter transmits a code word indicative of 8-bitsof a 16-bit video word (code word “16P0” of Table 5) followed by a codeword indicative of the other 8-bits of the video word (code word “16P1”of Table 5), and then repeats this operation to transmit code wordsindicative of the next video word, during consecutive link clock cycles.During each blanking interval (when DE=0), the transmitter enters state“16C0” (in which an encoded sync bit pair S0, S1 is transmitted) andthen state “16C1” (in which the same encoded sync bit pair S0, S1 isagain transmitted), and then repeats this operation, during consecutivelink clock cycles. In response to a falling edge of DE, the transmitterenters state 16C0 and asserts a pair of sync bits S0,S1 (shown in Table10) to the channel CH0 encoder (which is an element of a conventionalTMDS encoder in some embodiments) rather than 8-bits of video data. Inresponse to the next rising edge of DE, the transmitter asserts asequence of 8-bit video data words (one video data word per link clockcycle) to the encoder.

To implement any of the state diagrams of FIGS. 4-6 (or state diagramsfor N-bit mode operation in accordance with other embodiments of theinvention), the invention imposes no significant timing restrictions onthe duration of active video intervals, horizontal blanking intervals,or horizontal line intervals (each consisting of a horizontal line ofvideo and a horizontal blanking interval), measured in units of pixelclock cycles. None of these intervals is required to have a durationthat is an exact multiple of the video data group size. The onlyrestriction in some embodiments is that the minimum duration of ablanking interval (in units of link clock cycles) must be greater thanthe number of active video to blanking transition states. In general,for packing modes with pixel group size G greater than 2 (such as the 10bit-mode of FIG. 4), G-1 transition states (“mPCn”) are necessary tohandle groups that begin with pixels and end with blanking characters.Once these transition states have been entered (at the start ofblanking), the balance of that group must contain blanking characters.This leads to a requirement that for packing modes with G>2, the minimumblanking period (in which DE=0) is G-1 blanking characters (e.g., theminimum blanking is three blanking characters for the 10-bit mode). Forthe 8-bit, 12-bit and 16-bit state machines described with reference toFIGS. 3, 5, and 6, this minimum duration is zero link clock cycles(there is no restriction). For the 10-bit state machine described withreference to FIG. 4, the minimum blanking interval duration is four linkclock cycles (to allow cycling through the states 10PC2, 10PC3, 10PC4,and 10C0). Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that amodification of the FIG. 4 state diagram can reduce this minimumblanking interval duration to three link clock cycles by adding an extraarc out of the state labeled “10PC4.” A requirement for a minimumblanking interval duration of four link clock cycles is not asignificant obstacle to or limitation on implementing 10-bit modeoperation in accordance with the invention because all commonly usedconventional video timings have much larger minimum blanking counts.Similarly, the requirement in some embodiments for a minimum blankinginterval duration of 16 pixel clock cycles (for the purpose of sendinglink control messages, as set forth in the following paragraphs) is nota significant obstacle to or limitation on implementing the inventionbecause commonly used video timings have much longer blanking periods.

In a class of embodiments in which the inventive transmitter isconfigured to transmit data over a TMDS link, during active videointervals (when DE is high), the transmitter transmits code wordsindicative of video data (e.g., the video fragments shown in Tables 2-5)over the link's data channels (CH0, CH1, and CH2, shown in FIG. 1) andalso transmits the link clock of the link's clock channel (channel CHCshown in FIG. 1). During blanking intervals (when DE is low), thetransmitter transmits code words each indicative of two sync bits(horizontal and vertical sync bits) over data channel CH0 of the linkand four control bits (CTL0, CTL1, CTL2, CTL3) over data channels CH1and CH2 and transmits the link clock over the link's clock channel.During blanking, the four control bits (CTL0 through CTL3) can be usedoccasionally for short periods to encode the previously mentioned linkcontrol messages (“LCMs”) to communicate the transmitter packing phaseand color depth mode to the receiver. More specifically, during at leastone link clock cycle of a blanking interval, preferred embodiments ofthe transmitter send (over data channel CH1) a code word indicative of acontrol bit (the conventional control bit CTL0 shown in FIG. 1) and onebit of an LCM, and also send (over data channel CH2) a code wordindicative of the other bit of the LCM and another control bit (theconventional control bit CTL3 shown in FIG. 1). The transmitted controlbit CTL3 may be used in a conventional manner by HDCP decryptioncircuitry in the receiver.

In order to allow preferred embodiments of the inventive transmitter tosend link control messages (in the manner to be described below) duringblanking intervals, each video source that provides video data whileDE=1 and sync bits (HS, VS) and control bits (CTL0 through CTL3) whileDE=0 to the transmitter (for use by the transmitter to perform packingand encoding in an N-bit mode of operation, where N≠8) is preferablyconfigured to send the DE signal with the following restrictions. Thevideo source is preferably restricted from asserting the DE signal witha low level (to indicate a blanking interval) for less than a minimumperiod of 16 pixel clock cycles. The video source is preferably alsorestricted from changing the state of its CTL2 and CTL1 pins (over whichit sends conventional TMDS control bits CTL1 and CTL2 to thetransmitter) during the first 16 pixel clock cycles following a fallingedge of the DE signal. The reasons for this restriction will beexplained in greater detail below.

For color depths N that satisfy N>8, code words indicative of fragmentsof video data (or packing phase data or other data) are transmitted inaccordance with typical embodiments of the invention using a link clockthat is faster than the source pixel clock. In the embodiments describedwith reference to Tables 7-10 and FIGS. 4-6, for N=10, 12, or 16, thenumber of link clock cycles per group is one greater than the number ofsource pixel clocks per group. Thus, in such embodiments the inventivetransmitter is implemented so that a falling edge of DE in the linkclock domain (the start of a blanking interval in the link clock domain)does not occur after the first fragment of a group has been transmittedbut before the second fragment of the group has also been transmitted.The packing phase data transmitted in accordance with the invention (ineach blanking interval) indicate the phase of the most recentlytransmitted one of the last F-1 fragments of a group (where the completegroup consists of F fragments). The receiver (operating in the N-bitcolor mode) is implemented to recover transmitted 8-bit fragments ofvideo data at the link clock rate and (typically using a small FIFO) tounpack the recovered fragments and deliver unpacked N-bit video words atthe rate of one N-bit video word (per color channel) per recovered pixelclock cycle, even for odd pixel or blanking counts.

During N-bit mode operation (where N>8), an embodiment of the inventivetransmitter that is configured to send encoded video data, packing phasedata, and color mode data over a TMDS link is preferably configured tosend a 6-bit link control message (“LCM[5:0]” or “LCM”) to a receiverduring the first 12 TMDS link clock cycles of each blanking period(DE=0). The LCM can be indicative of packing phase data, color modedata, or other information. The LCM is determined as follows by bitsthat replace the CTL2 and CTL1 control bits that are conventionallytransmitted over data channels CH1 and CH2 of a TMDS link during thefirst 12 link clocks of the blanking interval:

for the first 4 link clock cycles of a blanking interval, CTL2=LCM[1],CTL1=LCM[0];

for the second 4 link clock cycles of a blanking interval, CTL2=LCM[3],CTL1=LCM[2]; and

for the third 4 link clock cycles of a blanking interval, CTL2=LCM[5],CTL1=LCM[4].

During the first 12 link clocks of the blanking intervals, thetransmitter can transmit code words indicative of the CTL0 and CTL3 bitsthat are conventionally transmitted over a TMDS link, and either:

the CTL2 and CTL1 bits that are conventionally transmitted over a TMDSlink (e.g., during 8-bit mode operation of the inventive transmitter);or bits indicative of the LCM in place of such conventional CTL2 andCTL1 bits (during N-bit mode operation of the inventive transmitter,where N≠8).

During N-bit mode operation (where N≠8), in each of the first four linkcycles of a blanking interval, the transmitter sends an out-of-band TMDScode word indicative of LCM[0] (in place of conventional bit CTL1) andCTL0 over data channel CH1 of the TMDS link, and also sends anout-of-band TMDS code word indicative of LCM[1] (in place ofconventional bit CTL2) and CTL3 over data channel CH2 of the TMDS link.Then, during each of the next four link cycles of the blanking interval,the transmitter sends an out-of-band TMDS code word indicative of LCM[2](in place of conventional bit CTL1) and CTL0 over data channel CH1 ofthe TMDS link, and also sends an out-of-band TMDS code word indicativeof LCM[3] (in place of conventional bit CTL2) and CTL3 over data channelCH2 of the TMDS link. Then, during each of the next four link cycles ofthe blanking interval, the transmitter sends an out-of-band TMDS codeword indicative of LCM[4] (in place of conventional bit CTL1) and CTL0over data channel CH1, and also sends an out-of-band TMDS code wordindicative of LCM[5] (in place of conventional bit CTL2) and CTL3 overdata channel CH2.

As noted, the video source is preferably restricted from changing thestate of its CTL2 and CTL1 pins (at which it can assert conventionalTMDS control bits CTL1 and CTL2 to the transmitter) during the first 16pixel clock cycles following its assertion of a falling edge of the DEsignal. In place of CTL1 and CTL2 bits from an external source, theinventive transmitter asserts (at the appropriate times) the appropriatebits of LCM to a TMDS encoder within the transmitter, and the encodergenerates the appropriate out-of-band TMDS code words in responsethereto.

After 12 to 16 pixel clock cycles of DE=0, the CTL2 and CTL1 pins revertto normal operation (so that the inventive transmitter can assert to theencoder code words indicative of CTL1 and CTL2 bits asserted thereto bythe external source, rather than code words indicative of LCM bits). Atall times, the transmitter sends control bits CTL3 and CTL0 to theencoder in a conventional manner (i.e., code words indicative ofconventional control bits CTL3 and CTL0 are sent to the encoderregardless of whether the inventive transmitter operates in aconventional 8-bit mode or an inventive N-bit mode, where N≠8), exceptin that they are typically asserted to the encoder in response to thelink clock rather than the pixel clock.

For deep color depths (N>8), the link clock is faster than the sourcepixel clock P. As noted above, in typical embodiments, the number oflink clock cycles per group (of packed K-bit fragments of N-bit videodata) is one more than the number of pixel clock cycles per group. Thus,in blanking intervals during N-bit mode operation, one blanking codeindicative of a sync bit pair or a control bit pair (control bits CTL0and CTL1, or control bits CTL2 and CTL3) can be transmitted per linkclock cycle. However, if “X” link cycles are required to transmit agroup of K-bit fragments (of N-bit video data) during an active videointerval, only X-1 sync bit pairs (or control bit pairs CTL0 and CTL1,or CTL2 and CTL3) will be typically be asserted to the transmitter (froma video source) per X link clock cycles. Thus, in blanking intervalsduring N-bit mode operation, typical embodiments of the inventivetransmitter generate and transmit (e.g. over each of channels CH0, CH1,and CH2 of a TMDS link) a sequence of X blanking codes during eachperiod of X link clock cycles, where each blanking code is indicative ofone of X-1 sync (or control) bit pairs received from the video source.The last two blanking codes transmitted during each such period areindicative of the same sync (or control) bit pair. The receiver dropsthe last blanking code (the repeated blanking code) transmitted duringeach such period of X link clock cycles in order to match the pixelrate. The inventive transmitter is preferably configured so that whileit sends the described six-bit LCM (or during the first 16 link clockcycles of a blanking interval), and optionally for additional link clockcycles thereafter, it asserts an internal DE=0 bit to its TMDS encodercircuitry even if the state of its external DE pin (coupled to the DEpin of an external video source) changes sooner.

The described LCM can be indicative of color mode data (for causing areceiver to operate in the indicated color depth mode), or a phasecontrol message indicative of packing phase data, or it can beindicative of other data of any desired type that may be useful in thespecific application. In one embodiment, a transmitter is configured tosend LCMs of different types during consecutive horizontal blankingintervals (a blanking interval known as “horizontal” blanking intervaltypically occurs once per line of a video field or frame, with a longerblanking interval known as a “vertical” blanking interval occurringafter the last line of each video field or frame). In a class ofpreferred embodiments in which a DVI-compliant transmitter sends a 6-bitLCM of the above-described type over data channels CH1 and CH2 of a TMDSlink, the transmitter sends the LCMs in the following sequence (whichrepeats every four horizontal blanking intervals): an LCM indicative ofcolor mode data during the first 16 link clock cycles of every “n”thhorizontal blanking interval; an LCM indicative of packing phase dataduring the first 16 link clock cycles of every “n+1”th horizontalblanking interval; and (optionally also) an LCM indicative of other dataduring the first 16 link clock cycles of every “n+2”th horizontalblanking interval; and (optionally also) another LCM indicative of otherdata during the first 16 link clock cycles of every “n+3”th horizontalblanking interval. Optionally the transmitter is programmable so as tobe operable either in:

a mode in which it sends an LCM indicative of color mode data once everytwo horizontal blanking intervals, during the first 16 link clock cyclesof every “n”th horizontal blanking interval, and sends an LCM indicativeof packing phase data during the first 16 link clock cycles of every“n+1”th horizontal blanking interval (it does not send LCMs of any othertype); or

a mode in which it sends an LCM indicative of color mode data once everyfour horizontal blanking intervals, during the first 16 link clockcycles of every “n”th horizontal blanking interval, sends an LCMindicative of packing phase data during the first 16 link clock cyclesof every “n+1”th horizontal blanking interval, sends an LCM indicativeof other data during the first 16 link clock cycles of every “n+2”thhorizontal blanking interval, and sends another LCM indicative of otherdata during the first 16 link clock cycles of every “n+3”th horizontalblanking interval.

When the described six-bit LCM is indicative of color mode data (forcausing a receiver to operate in the indicated color depth mode), thecolor depth mode message codes can be:

-   -   LCM[5:0]=0x30 for the 8-bit mode;    -   LCM[5:0]=0x31 for the 10-bit mode;    -   LCM[5:0]=0x32 for the 12-bit mode; and    -   LCM[5:0]=0x33 for the 16-bit mode,        where the prefix “0x” denotes that the following symbol is a        hexadecimal representation of a number.

Preferably, the receiver is configured to:

at reset, store an initial (default) color depth mode in a register (a“Last Color Mode Message Register”);

check for a color depth mode control message (LCM indicative of colormode data) at the start of each horizontal blanking interval;

filter out invalid color depth control messages (in a manner to bedescribed below); and

compare each newly received valid color depth mode control message withthe contents of the Last Color Mode Message Register. In response todetermining that they match, the receiver increments a Last Color ModeMessage Counter(until the counter saturates, which may occur at a countof 255 in a typical implementation). In response to determining thatthey do not match, the new (valid) color depth mode control message isloaded into the Last Color Mode Message Register and the Last Color ModeMessage Counter is cleared.

The receiver preferably implements noise filtering to assess whethereach received color depth mode control message is valid. Preferably, thereceiver considers a color depth mode control message to be valid onlyif:

-   -   LCM[5:4] is constant for at least Np of the first 4 link clock        cycles of DE=0; and    -   LCM[3:2] is constant for at least Np of the second 4 link clock        cycles of DE=0; and    -   LCM[1:0] is constant for at least Np of the third 4 link clocks        cycles of DE=0; and    -   LCM[5:0] is 0x30, 0x31, 0x32 or 0x33; and    -   DE=0 for at least Np link clock cycles after the link control        message,        where Np is a predetermined noise filter value. Preferably, Np        is a programmable value, and has a default value (its value if        it is not programmed to have a different value). In some        embodiments, the default value of Np is Np=3.

Preferably, the receiver begins to operate in the N-bit mode indicatedby the initial (default) color depth mode stored in the Last Color ModeMessage Register. The receiver may include another register that storesthe color depth mode control message that indicates the color depthparameter, N, for its current color mode. Preferably, the receiver alsoimplements noise filtering (in the manner described in the followingparagraph) when determining whether to change its current color mode.

Preferably, the receiver is configured to compare the color depth modecontrol message that indicates its current color depth parameter, N,with the contents of the Last Color Mode Message Register. The receiverdoes not change its color mode when the count of the Last Color ModeMessage Counter is less than a programmable noise filter thresholdvalue, Nm (whose maximum value is the count at which the Last Color ModeMessage Counter saturates). Whenever the count of the Last Color ModeMessage Counter is greater than or equal to Nm:

If the receiver color mode does not match the Last Color Mode MessageRegister, the receiver changes its color mode to the mode determined bythe contents of the Last Color Mode Message Register and resets the LastColor Mode Message Counter, or

if the receiver color mode matches the Last Color Mode Message Register,the receiver does not change its color mode or reset the Last Color ModeMessage Counter (in this case, all is well so that the receiver'soperating mode should not be changed).

As mentioned above, an LCM can be a phase control message (an LCMindicative of transmitter packing phase data). In embodiments of thetype described above in which a transmitter implements the statediagrams of FIGS. 4-6, the transmitter can be configured to send asix-bit LCM (in the above-described manner) as such a phase controlmessage, using the following phase control message codes:

-   -   LCM[5:0]=0x35 to indicate the phase of fragment 10P1 in the        10-bit mode, or fragment 12P1 in the 12-bit mode, or fragment        16P1 in the 16-bit mode);    -   LCM[5:0]=0x36 to indicate the phase of fragment 10P2 in the        10-bit mode, or fragment 12P2 in the 12-bit mode;    -   LCM[5:0]=0x37 to indicate the phase of fragment 10P3 in the        10-bit mode; and    -   LCM[5:0]=0x34 to indicate the phase of fragment 10P4 in the        10-bit mode.

Phase control messages are used to ensure that the receiver's unpackingstate machine phase is matched to the transmitter's packing statemachine phase. Each phase control message should indicate the phase ofthe last encoded fragment sent by the transmitter before the most recentfalling edge of DE before the phase control message. The receiverincludes an unpacking state machine that has the same state sequence asthe transmitter's packing state machine (for example, FIGS. 3, 4, 5 or6, depending on the current Color Mode). The receiver logs the phase ofits unpacking state machine for the last encoded fragment that itreceives before each falling edge of DE. Whenever the receiver decodes aphase control message during a DE=0 period, it compares thetransmitter's packing phase (sent via the LCM) to the receiver's mostrecently logged unpacking phase. The transmitter and receiver phases arefor the same fragment (the last fragment before DE changed to zero) andshould match. When the link is first started, or after a change in colormode or video timing, the transmitter and receiver will have (ingeneral) unrelated phases, and the receiver uses the transmitter phase(from the LCM) to adjust its phase to match the transmitter. After thisinitial adjustment of receiver phase, the transmitter and receiverphases should continue to match, as they are executing the same statesequences; in that (unusual) case, a mismatch between the transmitterand receiver phase indicates an error such as an intermittent or noisysignal, and the receiver again adjusts its phase to match thetransmitter to recover from the error.

Preferably, the receiver is configured to:

check for a phase control message (an LCM indicative of transmitter'spacking phase for the last pixel fragment in the line) at the start ofeach blanking interval;

log the phase of the last fragment received while DE=1 (the last pixelfragment in the line, just before DE goes to zero) in a “Captured Phase”register;

calculate the “phase offset” value (the difference between transmitterand receiver phase) during blanking intervals; and

when a consistent non-zero “phase offset” is detected, adjust thereceiver state machine phase so that the phase offset becomes zero (inthe manner described below).

The receiver preferably implements noise filtering to assess whethereach received phase control message is valid. Preferably, the receiverconsiders a phase control message to be valid only if:

-   -   LCM[5:4] is constant for at least Np of the first 4 link clock        cycles of DE=0; and    -   LCM[3:2] is constant for at least Np of the second 4 link clock        cycles of DE=0; and    -   LCM[1:0] is constant for at least Np of the third 4 link clocks        cycles of DE=0; and    -   LCM[5:0] is 0x34, 0x35, 0x36 or 0x37; and    -   DE=0 for at least Np link clock cycles after the link control        message,        where Np is a programmable noise filter value (in some        embodiments, the default value of Np is Np=3).

Preferably, whenever a (valid) phase control message is received, thereceiver compares the transmitter phase indicated by the phase controlmessage with the receiver's “captured phase” value (logged in responseto the last video fragment received before the start of the blankinginterval). If they match, a Phase Error counter in the receiver iscleared. If they do not match and the count indicated by the Phase Errorcounter is zero, the difference between the phase indicated by the validphase control message and the “captured phase” value in the CapturedPhase register is placed into the Phase Offset register and the PhaseError counter is incremented.

If the phase indicated by the valid phase control message does not matchthe “captured phase” value (logged in response to the last videofragment received before the start of the blanking interval) and thecount indicated by the Phase Error counter is non-zero, the receivercompares the “phase offset” value in the Phase Offset register with thedifference between the phase indicated by the valid phase controlmessage and the “captured phase” value in the Captured Phase register.If the new difference is the same as the phase offset value, the PhaseError counter is incremented. If the new difference (between the phaseindicated by the valid phase control message and the “captured phase”value in the Captured Phase register) does not match the phase offsetvalue in the Phase Offset register, the new difference is placed in thePhase Offset register (to replace the old phase offset value) and thePhase Error counter is cleared.

Whenever the count indicated by the Phase Error counter becomes greaterthan or equal to the above-defined programmable noise filter value, Nm(whose maximum value is the count at which the Phase Error countersaturates), the Phase Error counter is cleared and the receiver'sunpacking state machine phase is corrected by subtracting (modulo thegroup size F, the number of fragments per group for the current ColorMode) the value in the Phase Offset register from the unpacking statemachine phase. Whenever the count indicated by the Phase Error counteris less than the noise filter value, Nm, the receiver's state machine'sphase is considered to be correct and is not adjusted by subtracting thephase offset value in the Phase Offset register therefrom.

With reference to FIGS. 7-14, we next describe several embodiments ofthe inventive transmitter, receiver, and system.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the inventivetransmitter, FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment ofthe inventive transmitter, and FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a preferredembodiment of the inventive receiver.

Transmitter 100 of FIG. 7 includes FIFO buffer 101, (optional) spreadspectrum clock generation circuitry 102, pixel packing buffer andmultiplexing circuitry (“packer”) 104, encoder and serializer(“encoder”) 108, clock multiplier 106, main PLL (phase-locked loopcircuit) 110, and control registers 107, connected as shown.

Encoder 108 of transmitter 100 (transmitter 100′ of FIG. 8 includes anidentical encoder 108) is preferably implemented to encode 8-bit videocolor components as 10-bit TMDS code words and transmit them (and a linkclock) over a TMDS link in the same manner as does conventionaltransmitter 1 of FIG. 1 (except that in some modes of operation, thelink clock employed and transmitted by encoder 108 may have higherfrequency than the link clock transmitted by transmitter 1).Deserializer and decoding circuitry 144 of receiver 130 of FIG. 9 ispreferably implemented to receive and decode such 10-bit TMDS code words(using a multi-phase clock set generated by Clock PLL 140 in response tothe received link clock) to recover 8-bit video color components in thesame manner as does conventional receiver 3 of FIG. 1.

Transmitter 100 of FIG. 7, and transmitter 100′ of FIG. 8, are alsooperable in any selected one of a 10-bit mode a 12-bit mode, and a16-bit mode to pack and encode video data in accordance with theinvention, and each is implemented to transmit the encoded video dataover Channel 0, Channel 1, and/or Channel 2 of a TMDS link. Receiver 130of FIG. 9 is also operable in any of a 10-bit mode, a 12-bit mode, and a16-bit mode to decode and unpack such encoded video data aftertransmission over a TMDS link.

Control registers 107 (of FIG. 7) are configured to set transmitter100's operating mode (i.e., to set the color depth N to 8, 10, 12, or16) by asserting control bits to packer 104 and clock multiplier 106 tospecify the color depth mode in which elements 104 and 106 shouldoperate. In a typical implementation, the control registers are coupledfor I2C communication with an external source of control andconfiguration bits (including bits that determine in which color depthmode the transmitter should operate).

The optional spread spectrum clock circuitry 102 of FIG. 7 receives apixel clock PCK from an external source (or circuitry within thetransmitter generates the pixel clock and asserts it to circuitry 102).In response, circuitry 102 generates and asserts to PLL 106 aphase-modulated version, PLK′, of the pixel clock. Spread spectrum clockcircuitry 102 can be implemented in a conventional manner. For example,if the rest of transmitter 100 (or the rest of transmitter other thancontrol registers 107) is implemented as an integrated circuit (a“first” chip), circuitry 102 can be a commercially available integratedcircuit (for generating a spread spectrum clock in response to an inputclock) coupled to the first chip. Pixel clock PCK and phase-modulatedpixel clock PLK′ have the same (time-averaged) clock rate.

When transmitter 100 operates in the N-bit color mode, 3N-bit pixels ofvideo data, a data enable bit (DE), horizontal and vertical sync controlbits (HS and VS), and control bits (CTL0, CTL1, CTL2, and CTL3) areclocked into FIFO 101 using the pixel clock PCK, and clocked out of FIFO101 using the link clock (TCK) generated by main PLL 110. The video dataand bits DE, HS, VS, and CTL[0:3] can be received from an externalsource (coupled to transmitter 100) or generated by circuitry (notshown) within transmitter 100. FIFO 101 provides tolerance against thefrequency spread resulting from the time-varying relative phase ofclocks PCK and PCK′, and the frequency and phase differences of themultiplied link TCK relative to clock PCK′. FIFO 101 has sixteen FIFOlocations and a width of 55 bits (48 bits for up to 16 bit RGB pixelcomponents plus 7 bits for DE, HS, VS, CTL[3:0]) in a typicalimplementation.

Clock multiplier 106 is a PLL that generates a raw link clock TCK(ref)in response to the output PCK′ of spread spectrum clock circuitry 102.The raw link clock is a frequency-multiplied version of clock PCK′having frequency (N/8)P, where P is the frequency of clock PCK′.

In alternative embodiments (e.g., embodiments in which the transmitterdoes not receive the pixel clock from an external source but insteadgenerates the pixel clock, such as, for example, when the transmitter isintegrated in the same chip as a video/graphics source), the transmittermay include circuitry for generating the link bit rate clock directly(e.g., using a standard oscillator or synthesizer) and with theappropriate frequency for the transmitter's current color mode, and alsocircuitry for frequency dividing the link bit rate clock to generate thelink symbol clock and the pixel clock. In some cases, the frequencydivider circuitry for generating the pixel clock could be a simpledigital integer divider from the link bit rate. In other cases, thefrequency divider circuitry for generating the pixel clock could beimplemented in the same manner as any embodiment of fractional frequencydivider 142 of FIG. 9 (described below).

Main PLL 10 generates a stabilized version, TCK, of raw link clockTCK(ref), and phase-shifted versions of the stabilized link clock TCKfor use by encoder 108, FIFO 101 and packer 104. Specifically, PLL 110generates a multi-phase clock set which is a set of L clocks, eachhaving the link clock frequency and a different phase φ_(m) thatsatisfies φ_(m)=φ_(offset)+2π(m/L)+Δφ_(m) where the index “m” is anon-negative integer in the range {0, . . . , L-1 }, and Δφ_(m) is anerror term. Typically Δφ_(m) is much smaller than the phase increment2π/L, and the multi-phase clock set is generated to approximate (asclosely as is practical) an ideal multi-phase clock set consisting of Lclocks, each having the link clock frequency and each having a differentphase φ_(m)=φ_(offset)+2π(m/L).

Transmitter 100 has two main clock domains: the pixel clock domain(i.e., circuitry 102 and the circuitry for clocking bits into FIFO 101in response to pixel clock PCK), and the link clock domain (i.e., thecircuitry for clocking bits out of FIFO 101, and elements 104, 108, and110).

Encoder 108 operates in response to stabilized link clock TCK (generatedby PLL 110) and performs the above-described operations of encoding8-bit data words received from packer 104 as 10-bit TMDS code words,serializing the data, and transmitting the serialized encoded data (andstabilized link clock) over a TMDS link to a receiver.

Packer 104 passes through to encoder 108 the DE, CTL0, and CTL3 bitsclocked out of FIFO 101, and can either pass through to encoder 108 theCTL1 and CTL2 bits clocked out of FIFO 101 or (at appropriate times)assert in place of them internally generated bits CTL1 and CTL2 thatdetermine the above-described link control messages LCM[5:0]. Packer 104implements a LCM generator (e.g., LCM generator 124 of FIG. 7A) whichcauses packer 104 to assert the internally generated bits CTL1 and CTL2comprising each message LCM[5:0] at appropriate times during appropriateblanking intervals (e.g., in the first 12 link clock cycles of eachblanking interval as described above).

Preferably, FIFO 101 has 55-bit width, which is sufficient to carry DE,6 sync/control bits and/or 48 pixel data bits for one pixel clock. A newpixel or blanking character is written into FIFO 101 every pixel clock(PCK), along with DE (DE=1 indicates a pixel, DE=0 indicates blanking).Pixel packing buffer and multiplexing circuitry 104 reads a new pixel orblanking character (along with DE) out of FIFO 101 during certain linkclocks (TCK), indicated by the FIFO_read output of the packing statemachine 123 (in FIG. 7A). The main purpose of the FIFO is to buffer andresynchronize the data as it crosses between the PCK and TCK clockdomains, which operate at different frequencies.

An implementation of pixel packing buffer and multiplexing circuitry 104is shown in more detail in FIG. 7A. In this implementation, circuitry104 includes two pixel data holding registers (125 and 126) that areupdated every time a FIFO_read signal is asserted by packing statemachine 123 (which implements the appropriate one of the state diagramsof FIGS. 3 through 5). Together, elements 125 and 126 form a shiftregister, with the first register 126 containing the earlier of twoconsecutive pixel or blanking characters and the second register 125containing the later of two consecutive pixel or blanking characters.

The state machine 123 states are shown in FIGS. 3 through 6. TheFIFO_read control signal output from state machine 123 is false in oneof the “P” packing states (typically 10P0, 12P0, or 16P0, with thespecific phase depending on the particular implementation) because a newpixel is not needed, and is also false in one of the “C” packing states(typically 10C4, 12C2, 16C1; again, implementation dependent). In theother states, state machine 123 asserts the FIFO_read control signal astrue.

Similarly, in certain states (typically the “P” states; again, thespecific phase will depend on the particular implementation) statemachine 123 asserts DE_OUT=1 and in the other states (typically “PC” and“C” states; again, implementation dependent) state machine 123 assertsDE_OUT=0.

The Color Mode (8, 10, 12, 16 bit components) and Color Phase (0 through4) signals output from state machine 123 instruct pixel packing mux 127to select bits from registers 125 and 126 in accordance with Tables 2through 10 to form the next fragment to be sent to encoder 108 (shown inFIG. 7). For example, in the 10-bit mode, 8 bits can be selected fromthe first holding register 126 (for each color component, according toTable 3) during state 10P0, then 2 bits can be selected from firstholding register 126 and 6 bits from second holding register 125 (foreach color component) during state 10P1, then 4 bits can be selectedfrom each of first holding register 126 and second holding register 125(for each color component) during state 10P2, then 6 bits can beselected from first holding register 126 and 2 bits from second holdingregister 125 (for each color component) during state 10P3, and then 8bits can be selected from first holding register 126 (for each colorcomponent) during state 10P4.

Alternatively, register 125 may be omitted and the head (output word) ofFIFO 101 may be used in place of register 125. This implementation maysave a register, but may not be able to operate at as high a speed asthe preferred implementation including two registers 125 and 126.

Multiplexers 127, 128, and 129 (connected as shown in FIG. 7A) passthrough to encoder 108 the DE, CTL0, and CTL3 bits clocked out of FIFO101, and can either pass through to encoder 108 the CTL1 and CTL2 bitsclocked out of FIFO 101 or (at appropriate times) assert in place ofthem internally generated bits CTL1 and CTL2 that determine theabove-described link control messages LCM[5:0]. More specifically, LCMgenerator 124 of FIG. 7A generates bits (labeled “LCM, CTL1” and “LCM,CTL2” in FIG. 7A) comprising each message LCM[5:0], and causesmultiplexers 128 and 129 to assert the internally generated bits LCM,CTL and LCM, CTL2 at times (determined by the LCM_ENABLE signal assertedto multiplexers 128 and 129 by LCM generator 124) such that encoder 108will transmit the LCM[5:0] during the appropriate link clock cycles ofeach appropriate blanking interval (e.g., in the first 12 link clockcycles of each blanking interval as described above).

Transmitter 100 of FIG. 7 is preferably implemented to be operable in an8-bit mode in which packer 104 passes through to encoder 108 threestreams of 8-bit video data from FIFO 101 to encoder 108, so thatencoder 108 can perform conventional TMDS encoding of the video data togenerate a 10-bit TMDS code word in response to each 8-bit component andtransmit the encoded data over a TMDS link. In each N-bit mode (in whichN>8), packer 104 implements packing by selecting three 8-bit words(according to Tables 3 through 5 and FIGS. 4 through 6) from the sixN-bit words (two N-bit words per color component) available fromregisters 125 and 126 (of FIG. 7A) and asserts the selected data toencoder 108, so that encoder 108 can perform conventional TMDS encodingof the video data to generate a 10-bit TMDS code word in response toeach 8-bit component and transmit the encoded data over the TMDS link.

Transmitter 100 of FIG. 7 is preferably also operable in a 6-bit colormode in which even and odd 3N-bit pixels (where 3N=18) are paired toform 36 bit words which can then be packed and encoded using the sametechniques already described for the 12 bit color mode (3*12=36). In the6-bit color mode, the rate of the transmitted link clock may be 0.75×(6/8) of the pixel clock rate (instead of 1.5× the pixel clock rate, asin the 12-bit color mode). In the 6-bit color mode, the even/odd pairingrate may be at the pixel clock rate, forming 36 bit words which may bepacked at one half the pixel clock rate. In that case, the link clockrate is again 1.5× the 36-bit word packing rate, as it is in the case of12-bit pixels.

More generally, in some modes of some implementations, transmitter 100may accept two pixels per input clock, with an input clock havingone-half the pixel rate, and a wider FIFO may be used which accepts twopixels per write. In this case clock multiplier 106 may multiply theinput clock (whose rate is one-half the pixel rate) by a factor doublethat for implementing the previously described ratio of link clock topixel clock rate to obtain the link clock.

FIG. 8 shows an alternative clocking implementation for the transmitter,which is not currently preferred. Elements and signals identified inFIG. 8 that correspond to elements and signals identified in FIG. 7 arenumbered identically in the two Figures, and the above descriptionthereof will not be repeated. Transmitter 100′ of FIG. 8 includes pixelpacking buffer and multiplexing circuitry (packer) 112 (similar topacker 104 of FIG. 7), FIFO buffer 116 (similar to 101 in FIG. 7),spread spectrum clock generation circuitry 118 (similar to 102 in FIG.7), encoder 108 (as in FIG. 7), clock multiplier 114 (similar to 106 inFIG. 7), main PLL 110 (as in FIG. 7), and control registers 107 (as inFIG. 7), connected as shown.

FIG. 8 simply reverses the order of clock multiplication 114 and spreadspectrum clocking 118 compared to FIG. 7, which requires that the pixelpacking 112 occur prior to the FIFO 116, and introduces an additionalclock domain FCK. With regard to the color packing state machine and thelink control messages described above, the fundamental principles ofoperation are the same for FIG. 7 and FIG. 8; the differences are onlyat the implementation level.

Clock multiplier 114 of FIG. 8 is a PLL that generates afrequency-multiplied version (“FCK”) of the pixel clock in response topixel clock PCK. Frequency-multiplied clock FCK has frequency (N/8)P,where P is the frequency of clock PCK and transmitter 100′ is operatingin an N-bit color depth mode

In response to frequency-multiplied clock FCK, spread spectrum clockcircuitry 118 generates and asserts to PLL 110 a raw link clock,TCK(ref), which is a phase-modulated version of clock FCK. Spreadspectrum clock circuitry 118 can be implemented in a conventionalmanner, and can be identical to spread spectrum clock circuitry 102 ofFIG. 7 if such an implementation of circuitry 118 is operable inresponse to either a clock having frequency (N/8)P (as in FIG. 8) or apixel clock having frequency P (as in FIG. 7).

Transmitter 100′ of FIG. 8 performs the same functions as doestransmitter 100, but operates in three main clock domains: the pixelclock domain (i.e., clock multiplier 114 and the circuitry for clockingbits into packer 112 in response to pixel clock PCK; thefrequency-multiplied clock domain (i.e., the circuitry for clocking bitsout of packer 112 and for clocking the bits into FIFO 116 in response toclock F); and the link clock domain (i.e., the circuitry for clockingbits out of FIFO 116, and elements 104 and 110).

FIFO 116 provides tolerance against the frequency spread resulting fromthe time-varying relative phase of clocks FCK and TCK(ref), and theclock variation of TCK(ref) relative to link clock TCK.

The FIG. 7 implementation of the inventive transmitter is preferable tothat of FIG. 8 for most applications since: the latter implementationmay require increased buffering in 112 compared to 104 in the former;the former has only two clock trees whereas the latter has three; andspread spectrum clock circuitry 102 of FIG. 7 must have a higher maximumoperating frequency and wider operating frequency range than mustcircuitry 1118 of FIG. 8.

Receiver 130 of FIG. 9 includes deserializer and decoding circuitry 144,main PLL 140, clock divider 142, LCM decoding logic 131, LCM filter 132,color sequencer (unpacking state machine) 134, pixel unpacking bufferand color FIFO (unpacker) 136, and delay pipeline 146, connected asshown. Unpacker 136 is preferably implemented as shown in FIG. 9A (i.e.,it preferably includes elements 150, 151, 152, and 154, connected asshown in FIG. 9A). In FIG. 9, the “CTL1” and “CTL2” bits input to LCMdecoding logic 131 are two bits of the bits “CTL[0:3]” output fromdecoder 144.

In operation of receiver 130, TMDS code words (including video codewords) that have been transmitted over the data channels of a TMDS linkare received, decoded, and deserialized in TMDS deserializer anddecoding circuitry 144. Once per cycle of the recovered link clock“lck,” the following bits are clocked out of circuitry 144: three 8-bitvideo words (one 8-bit word for each of three color components, each ofwhich is a fragment of an N-bit color component), and seven control bits(DE, VS, HS, and CTL[0:3], each of which has been described above). Thedecoded video and control bits are delayed in delay pipeline 146 for atime sufficient for state machine 134 to respond to the output of LCMfilter 132 by asserting appropriate control bits to the unpackingcircuitry (preferably implemented as elements 150, 151, and 152 of FIG.9A) of unpacker 136.

With unpacker 136 implemented as shown in FIG. 9A, during every linkclock cycle, a 24-bit pixel fragment or a 6-bit sync/control code isclocked from delay pipeline 146 into assembly buffer input register 151.Input register 151 is copied one link clock cycle later to register 150.Unpacking multiplexer 152 operates on each color component individuallyand combines bits from the earlier fragment in register 150 and thelater fragment in register 151 to recover the full 3N-bit pixel inaccordance with the invention. Unpacking multiplexer 152 combines thetwo fragments according to Tables 2 through 10, as directed by thecolor_depth[1:0] output of LCM filter 132 (of FIG. 9) and thecurrent_phase[2:0] output of color sequencer state machine 134 (of FIG.9).

During F-1 link clock cycles (out of F link clock cycles per fragmentgroup), state machine 134 “push” output causes a new N-bit pixel to bewritten from the unpacking mux 152 to FIFO 154. State machine 134 alsogenerates a “de_out” output that tags each word written to FIFO 154 aseither pixel or blanking data.

FIFO 154 of unpacker 136 preferably has 55-bit width (for pixel datahaving up to 48 bit width, plus 7 bits of DE, sync and control data) and8-word depth, in order to buffer and resynchronize data transfersbetween the link clock and pixel clock domains. Writes to FIFO 154 occurduring link clock cycles that have “push” true. Reads from FIFO 154 tothe receiver data outputs occur every pixel clock cycle.

Tables 2 through 10 and FIGS. 3 through 6 (implemented by thecurrent_phase[2:0], de_out, and push outputs of color sequencer 134)define the process of assembling fragments into pixels or blankingcharacters. In response to the current_phase[2:0] bits from colorsequencer 134, multiplexing circuitry 152 within unpacker 136 selects Nbits defined by Tables 2 through 5 for each color component (where3N=24, 30, 36, or 48) from one or both of the assembly buffer registers150, 151 for output to the FIFO 154 during the link clock cycles thatcomplete new pixels or blanking characters (indicated by “push”=1). Foreach group of size of F fragments, there will be F writes to assemblybuffer registers and F-1 writes to the FIFO, all at link clock rate.

For example, while unpacking pixels in the 10-bit color mode (for eachof three color components, in parallel):

-   -   during the 10P0 state, fragment 10P0 is written to the second        assembly register 151, the previous contents of register 151 are        moved to register 150 and no data is pushed into the FIFO;    -   during the 10P1 state, fragment 10P1 is written to the second        assembly register 151, the previous contents of register 151 are        moved to register 150 and 8 bits from the first register 150        plus 2 bits from the second register 151 are used to recover        pixel “A”, which is pushed into FIFO 154;    -   during the 10P2 state, fragment 10P2 is written to the second        assembly register 151, the previous contents of register 151 are        moved to register 150 and 6 bits from the first register 150        plus 4 bits from the second register 151 are used to recover        pixel “B”, which is pushed into FIFO 154;    -   during the 10P3 state, fragment 10P3 is written to the second        assembly register 151, the previous contents of register 151 are        moved to register 150 and 4 bits from the first register 150        plus 6 bits from the second register 151 are used to recover        pixel “C”, which is pushed into FIFO 154; and    -   during the 10P4 state, fragment 10P4 is written to the second        assembly register 151, the previous contents of register 151 are        moved to register 150 and 2 bits from the first register 150        plus 8 bits from the second register 151 are used to recover        pixel “D”, which is pushed into FIFO 154.

Unpacked pixels or blanking characters (HS, VS, CTL[0:3]) and DE (DE=1for pixels, DE=0 for blanking) are read out of FIFO 154 at the pixelclock rate determined by the PCK clock divider 142. In some modes ofsome implementations, the pixel clock may be divided by two (relative toits rate in other modes), and two pixels (even and odd) read out of FIFO154 per pixel clock cycle, provided that FIFO 154 is wide enough todeliver two pixels per pixel clock cycle.

As shown in FIG. 9, clock PLL 140 recovers the transmitted link clockTCK from the link's clock channel, and generates a stabilized version(“lck”) of the recovered link clock (and phase shifted versionsthereof). Specifically, PLL 140 generates a multi-phase clock set, whichis a set of L clocks, each having the link clock frequency (or aninteger multiple thereof, as described below with reference to FIGS.10-13) and each having a different phase φ_(m) that satisfiesφ_(m)=φ_(offset)+2π(m/L)+Δφ_(m) where the index “m” is a non-negativeinteger in the range {0, . . . , L-1 }, and Δφ_(m) is an error term.Typically Δφ_(m) is much smaller than the phase increment 2π/L, and themulti-phase clock set is generated to approximate (as closely as ispractical) an ideal multi-phase clock set consisting of L clocks, eachhaving the link clock frequency and each having a different phaseφ_(m)=φ_(offset)+2π(m/L). In response to this multi-phase clock set,circuitry 144 performs the above-described operations of de-serializingthe video data received over the link, decoding the de-serialized 10-bitTMDS code words to recover 8-bit code words, and asserting the 8-bitcode words to delay pipeline 146.

Clock divider 142 performs a frequency dividing operation to recover thepixel clock (“pck”) from the stabilized recovered link clock “lck” (andother members of the multi-phase clock set) asserted thereto by PLL 140.Clock divider 142 can include the circuitry shown in FIGS. 10 and 12 (tobe described below). Alternatively, clock divider 142 can be implementedas a PLL, in which case receiver 130 would include two PLLs (PLL 140 andthe PLL that implements clock divider 142). However, such alternativeembodiments are typically more expensive to implement those in whichclock divider 142 employs logic circuitry (e.g., the logic shown inFIGS. 10 and 12) to recover a pixel clock from a recovered link clock ora stabilized version of a recovered link clock.

LCM decoding logic 131 receives the control bits CTL0, CTL1, and DEoutput from circuitry 144. Logic 131 also receives two control bits(i2c_Np[1:0]) that determine the above-described noise filter value, Np,for use in filtering link control messages LCM[5:0] determined by thecontrol bits CTL0 and CTL1. Logic 131 identifies each message LCM[0:5]determined by a sequence of the bit pairs CTL0, CTL1 and performs theabove-described filtering operation to determine whether the message isvalid. Logic 131 asserts the following output bits to LCM filter 132:

color_lcm[1:0], which indicate the value of the color depth link controlmessage most recently determined to be valid (e.g., color_lcm[1:0]=00,01, 10, and 11 indicate respectively that the receiver should operate inthe 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, or 16-bit color mode;

got_color_lcm (which goes high for one link clock cycle when a new colordepth link control message is decoded);

got_phase_lcm (which goes high for one link clock cycle when a newpacking phase link control message is decoded); and

phase_lcm[1:0], which indicate the value of the packing phase linkcontrol message most recently determined to be valid.

LCM filter 132 receives the bits that are output from logic 131, the DEbit output from circuitry 144, and eight control bits (i2c_Nm[7:0]) thatdetermine the above-described noise filter threshold value, Nm, for usein filtering color depth link control messages determined by the bits“color_lcm[1:0]” and packing phase link control messages determined bythe bits “phase_lcm[1:0]”.

Preferably the bits “i2c_Np[1:0]” are asserted to decoding logic 131,and the bits “i2c_Nm[7:0]” are asserted to filter 132 over aconventional 12C link from a microcontroller that can be configured orprogrammed by a user to specify the noise filter value, Np, and thenoise filter threshold value, Nm.

Color sequencer 134 implements a state machine to determine the sequenceof unpacking states in which receiver 130 operates and also captures thephase of the last fragment of video data received before the start ofblanking. Sequencer 134 asserts the bits “capture_phase[2:0]” to filter132 to indicate the phase of the fragment of video data captured byreceiver 130 at the most recent falling edge of DE, and asserts the bits“current_phase[2:0]” to filter 132 to indicate the unpacking phase thatunpacker 136 should use to reassemble the fragments into pixel orblanking data (per Tables 2 through 10 and FIGS. 3 through 6).

LCM filter 132 filters the link control messages determined by bitscolor_lcm[1:0] and phase_lcm[1:0]. LCM filter 132 includes theabove-described “Last Color Mode Message Counter” and “Phase Errorcounter” (each preferably implemented as an 8-bit counter). For example,the output of filter 132 does not cause receiver 130 to change its colormode unless the count of the Last Color Mode Message Counter is equal toor greater than the noise filter threshold value, Nm.

LCM filter 132 asserts the following output bits to color sequencer 134:

color_depth[1:0], indicating the current color depth parameter (“N”) forreceiver 130. Each new value of color_depth[1:0] triggers a color modechange (filter 132 also asserts the color_depth[1:0] bits to unpacker136 and clock divider 142 to determine the color mode in which unpacker136 and clock divider 142 operate); and

phase_delta[2:0], called “Phase Offset” in the description above. Anon-zero value of phase_delta[2:0] triggers a phase adjustment of theunpacking state machine to match the transmitter's packing sequence.

In a typical implementation, the color_depth[1:0] bits default to avalue that determines 8-bit mode operation if no color depth linkcontrol message or packing phase link control message is decoded for aprogrammable, predetermined number of blanking intervals.

Color sequencer 134 implements an unpacking state machine for eachsupported N-bit color mode (i.e., a state machine for each value of N asin FIGS. 3 through 6, determined by control bits color_depth[1:0]),although only one such state machine is active at any time.

The “de_out” bit output from color sequencer 134 is derived from statevalues.

In addition to the above-mentioned bits output from color sequencer 134,the color sequencer outputs to unpacker 136 a “push” bit indicatingwhether unpacker 136 should clock a new set of bits from delay pipelineinto the FIFO buffer within unpacker 136.

In typical implementations of color sequencer 134:

in 8-bit mode operation, the phase_delta[2:0] bits from filter 132 areignored; and

in N-bit mode operation (where N≠8), a non-zero value ofphase_delta[2:0] triggers a resynchronization by subtracting (modulo thepixel group size G) the phase_delta[2:0] value from a control word thatindicates the next state of the currently active state machine.Alternatively, color sequencer 134 always loads a non-zero value ofphase_delta[2:0] into a Y-bit phase counter, where Y is the number ofbits representing phase in the currently active state machine. Everytime the state machine passes through a zero phase state it freezes andincrements the phase counter until the phase counter reaches zero. Atthis point the state machine's phase should be correctly set and thestate machine is unfrozen.

As described, receiver 130 of FIG. 9 is implemented to receiveconventional TMDS-encoded video data from a serial link (e.g., a DVIlink) and decode the received TMDS code words to generate 24-bit videodata (e.g., 24-bit pixels, each comprising an 8-bit Red component, an8-bit Green component, and an 8-bit Blue component). The receiver isalso operable in accordance with the invention in any of the followingmodes (the specific mode is determined by color mode data received overthe link):

a 30-bit pixel mode in which it receives TMDS-encoded video data fromthe link and decodes the received TMDS code words and unpacks thedecoded bits to generate 30-bit video data (each pixel of which consistsof a 10-bit Red component, a 10-bit Green component, and a 10-bit Bluecomponent);

a 36-bit pixel mode in which it receives TMDS-encoded video data fromthe link and decodes the received TMDS code words and unpacks thedecoded bits to generate 36-bit video data (each pixel of which consistsof a 12-bit Red component, a 12-bit Green component, and a 12-bit Bluecomponent); and

a 48-bit pixel mode in which it receives TMDS-encoded video data fromthe link and decodes the received TMDS code words and unpacks thedecoded bits to generate 48-bit video data (each pixel of which consistsof a 16-bit Red component, a 16-bit Green component, and a 16-bit Bluecomponent).

A variation on receiver 130 is also operable in accordance with theinvention in the following mode (with its specific operating modedetermined by color mode data received over the link):

an 18-bit pixel mode in which it receives TMDS-encoded video data fromthe link and decodes the received TMDS code words and generates from thedecoded bits 36-bit video data (each pixel of which consists of a 12-bitRed component, a 12-bit Green component, and a 12-bit Blue component)which are further unpacked by dividing the 36 bits into even and oddpairs of 18-bit video data (each pixel of which consists of an even andodd 6-bit Red component, an even and odd 6-bit Green component, and aneven and odd 6-bit Blue component). The 36 bit pixel rate clock can bedivided in half to obtain the 18 bit pixel rate clock.

In the N-bit mode of operation of receiver 130 (in which three N-bitcolor components are clocked out of unpacker 136 per pixel clock cycle),the frequency of the pixel clock “pck” generated by clock divider 142 is(8/N)=L, where L is the frequency of the recovered link clock “lck.”

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a circuit for use in a preferredimplementation of clock divider 142 of receiver 130 of FIG. 9, during12-bit mode of operation (in which three 12-bit color components areclocked out of unpacker 136 each pixel clock cycle). FIG. 11 is a timingdiagram of signals received and generated by the FIG. 10 circuit. Apreferred implementation of clock PLL 140 outputs a multi-phase clockset, as described previously. Specifically, in the preferredimplementation, PLL 140 generates a multi-phase clock set, which is aset of 10 clocks, each having a phase increment 2π/10 and a frequencyequal to 5 times the link clock rate.

Phases 0, 5 and 7 of the multi-phase clock set are used as inputs ph0,ph5 and ph7 to the clock divider 142. The phase of clock ph0 correspondsto that of the recovered link clock “lck,”, phase of clock ph5corresponds to that of ph0 plus 2π( 5/10), and the phase of clock ph7corresponds to that of ph0 plus 2π( 7/10). In the 12-bit operating mode,two cycles of the desired pixel clock “pck” should equal three cycles ofthe link clock. Three cycles of the link clock are 15 cycles of the 5×clock outputs from the PLL 140.

In the 12-bit operating mode, the clock divider 142 (including the FIG.10 circuit) first generates the complement of waveform “A” in FIG. 11 byusing a Johnson counter (well known to practitioners of the art)consisting of flip-flops “a” through “i” plus one feedback gate (drivingflip-flop “a”) and two initialization gates (connected to flip-flop“i”), as shown in FIG. 10. The NAND gate that drives flip-flop “j” isconnected to tap points driven by flip-flops “b” and “f”. The tap pointis designed such that waveform “A” will be high for 4 cycles and low for11 cycles of the ph0 clock. Therefore, “A” has a period of 15 ph0 clocksor 3 link clocks or 2 pixel clocks.

Flip-flops “l” through “s” delay the complement of waveform “A” by 7.5ph0 clocks to produce the complement of waveform “B”. This fractionaldelay is accomplished by using ph7 and p5 to clock the delay flip-flops;ph7 (input to flip-flop “l”) provides a 0.7 cycle delay from ph0 (outputof flip-flop “j”), and ph5 (input to flip-flop “p”) provides a 0.8 cycledelay from ph7 (output of flip-flop “o”), together, they provide 1.5cycles delay; the other named flip-flops provide the remaining 6 cyclesof delay.

The final negative input OR function 300 (driven by flip-flops “k” and“t”) combines the complements of waveforms “A” and “B” to produce thedesired pixel clock (signal “A+B”), which has a period of 7.5 ph0 clocksor 1.5 ( 7.5/5) link clocks. The resulting waveform is high for 4 ph0cycles and low for 3.5 ph0 cycles. The signal (A+B) is the pixel clock“pck” which has frequency (L/1.5), where L is the link clock frequency.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a circuit for use in a preferredimplementation of clock divider 142 of receiver 130 of FIG. 9, during10-bit mode of operation (in which three 10-bit color components areclocked out of unpacker 136 each pixel clock cycle). FIG. 13 is a timingdiagram of signals received and generated by the FIG. 12 circuit. In the10-bit operating mode, the frequency of the pixel clock “pck” generatedby clock divider 142 is ( 8/10)L=(L/1.25). A preferred implementation ofclock PLL 140 outputs a multi-phase clock set, each clock in the sethaving one of 10 different phases and a frequency equal to 5 times thelink clock rate. Phases 0, 5 and 7 of the multi-phase clock set are usedas inputs ph0, ph5 and ph7 to the clock divider 142. In the 10-bitoperating mode, four cycles of the desired pixel clock “pck” shouldequal five cycles of the link clock. Five cycles of the link clock are25 cycles of the 5× clock outputs from the PLL 140.

In the 10-bit mode, clock divider 142 (including the FIG. 12 circuit)first generates waveform “A” in FIG. 13 by using a Johnson counter (wellknown to practitioners of the art) consisting of flip-flops “a0” through“a8” and “b0” through “b4” plus one feedback gate (driving flip-flop“b0”) and three initialization gates (connected to flip-flop “a8”),shown in FIG. 12. The NAND gate that drives flip-flop “b5” is connectedto tap points driven by flip-flops “a2” and “a5”, producing a firstpulse that is high for 3 cycles of ph0 and low for 22 cycles. The NANDgate that drives flip-flop “b6” is connected to tap points driven byflip-flops “b1” and “b4”, producing a second pulse that is high for 3cycles of ph0 and low for 22 cycles that lags the first pulse by 6cycles. The negative input OR gate that drives “b7” combines the firstand second pulse to obtain the complex waveform “A”, which has a periodof 25 ph0 cycles or 5 link clocks or 4 pixel clocks.

Similarly to the 12-bit mode divider described above, flip-flops “c0”through “c5” and “d0” through “d6” delay the waveform “A” by 12.5 ph0clocks to produce the waveform “B”. This fractional delay isaccomplished by using ph7 and ph5 and the previously describedtechnique.

The final negative input OR function 302 (driven by flip-flops “b8” and“d7”) combines the waveforms “A” and “B” to produce the desired pixelclock (the signal “A+B” shown in each of FIGS. 12 and 13), which cycles4 times per 25 ph0 cycles (or 5 link clocks). The resulting waveform ishigh for 3 ph0 cycles and low for 3 (sometimes 3.5) ph0 cycles. Thesignal (A+B) is the pixel clock “pck” which has frequency (L/1.25),where L is the link clock frequency.

The advantage of the fractional clock divider designs of FIGS. 10through 13 is that they require less die area than the conventional PLLbased frequency divider approach and do not require area or criticaldesign for PLL phase detectors, loop filters and VCOs, using just a fewflip-flops and gates.

The general principle of the clock divider designs of FIGS. 10 through13 is to take advantage of the fastest available clock signal related tothe link clock. Typically a clock set having M phases, and frequencyequal to N times the link rate (where M and N are integers, M typicallyeven), is required for the operation of deserializer 144 (shown in FIG.9). Such a clock defines M*N subdivisions of the link clock. In thepreferred embodiment, M=10 and N=5, providing up to 50 subdivisions ofthe link clock period. Other embodiments may have N=10 and M greaterthan or equal to 2, providing at least 20 subdivisions. Preferredembodiments of the invention define a waveform (in the describedembodiments this is accomplished by using Johnson counters) using theavailable subdivision points of the link clock period, and phase shiftsand combines (e.g., using an OR or NOR gate) two or more copies of thewaveform using the available subdivision points, to produce a pixelclock that exactly (or sufficiently accurately) provides the requiredfractional ratio to the link clock (which is required by the unpackingsystem, e.g., that of FIG. 9). The pixel clock duty cycle is eitherexactly 50% or a very close approximation of 50%, depending on thenumber of available subdivisions (M*N) and the required clock ratio.More subdivisions improve the approximation or result in an exact pixelclock.

In some embodiments, the inventive transmitter transmits N-bit videoover a serial link configured to transmit encoded K-bit words of videodata. In such embodiments, the transmitter comprises: a subsystemoperable in at least one N-bit mode to pack a sequence of N-bit words ofvideo data into a sequence of fragments, where N≠K and each of thefragments consists of K bits of the video data; and circuitry coupled tothe subsystem and having at least one output configured to be coupled tothe serial link, wherein the circuitry is configured to generate asequence of encoded fragments by encoding each fragment in the sequenceof fragments and to assert the sequence of encoded fragments to the atleast one output, whereby the encoded fragments can be transmitted overthe link when said link is coupled to the at least one output.Preferably, the sequence of encoded fragments is a sequence of groups ofM encoded fragments, where M=N/D, D is the greatest common divisor of Nand K, the N-bit words of video data are asserted to the subsystem at afirst rate equal to P of the N-bit words per unit time, and thecircuitry is configured to assert the sequence of encoded fragments tothe at least one output at a second rate that is at least substantiallyequal to (N/K)P of the encoded fragments per unit time. Also preferably,the transmitter is configured to execute state sequences, eachconsisting of M states (e.g., the states described above with referenceto FIGS. 4-6), during operation in each N-bit mode. The state sequencesinclude: active video interval sequences (e.g., a sequence of states10P0 through 10P4 in FIG. 4), wherein M of the encoded fragments areasserted to the at least one output during each of the active videointerval sequences; blanking interval sequences (e.g., a sequence ofstates 10C0 through 10C4 in FIG. 4), wherein M blanking characters isasserted to the at least one output during each of the blanking intervalsequences, and one of said M blanking characters is identical to anotherone of said M blanking characters; active video to blanking transitionalsequences (e.g., a sequence of states 10P1, 10PC2, 10PC3, 10PC4, and10C1 in FIG. 4), wherein one of the encoded fragments is asserted to theat least one output during a first state of each of the active video toblanking transitional sequences and a last state of each of the activevideo to blanking transitional sequences occurs in a blanking interval;and blanking to active video transitional sequences (e.g., a sequence ofstates 10C0 , 10P1, 10P2, 10P3, and 10P4 in FIG. 4), wherein one of theencoded fragments is asserted to the at least one output during a laststate of each of the blanking to active video transitional sequences anda first state of each of the blanking to active video transitionalsequences occurs in a blanking interval, and wherein the transmitter isconfigured to assert the sequence of encoded fragments to the at leastone output without omitting assertion of any encoded fragment thereof byexecuting (completely or partially) a sufficient number of statesequence cycles, each of the state sequence cycles including any numberof the active video interval sequences, followed by one of the activevideo to blanking transitional sequences, followed by a number of theblanking interval sequences, followed by one of the blanking to activevideo transitional sequences.

In some embodiments of the inventive transmitter (e.g., embodiments inwhich transmitter 201 or transceiver 205 of FIG. 2 is implemented as aHDMI-compliant transmitter), the transmitter is operable to send encodedvideo data words (e.g., 8-bit video data words, each encoded using theTMDS encoding algorithm as a 10-bit, transition-minimized code word)over at least one video channel of a TMDS link (or other TMDS-like linkhaving at least one channel for transmitting serial video) during activevideo intervals. During portions of blanking intervals (e.g., dataislands) between the active video intervals, packets including(containing) encoded packing phase data and/or encoded color mode data(and optionally also other encoded data) are transmitted over at leastone video channel of the link. During each data island, at least onepacket containing encoded data is transmitted. In some embodiments, allencoded data contained in each packet is encoded as a sequence of10-bit, TMDS transition-minimized code words. During periods (e.g.,control data periods) between the active video intervals and dataislands, some such transmitters send control words (each encoded as a10-bit, transition-maximized code word indicative of two control bits:CTL0 and CTL1, or CTL2 and CTL3) and sync words (each encoded as a10-bit, transition-maximized code word indicative of two sync bits:HSYNC and VSYNC) over the video channels. During each active videointerval, HSYNC, VSYNC, CTL0, CTL1, CTL2, and CTL3 are assumed by thereceiver to maintain the values that they had when the active videointerval started.

In HDMI-compliant embodiments, transition-minimized code wordsindicative of HSYNC and VSYNC bits are sent (e.g., one code word perlink clock cycle, each word indicative of an HSYNC bit, a VSYNC bit, apacket header bit, and at least one other bit) over one channel (CH0) ofa TMDS link during each data island.

In HDMI-compliant embodiments, each packet has a 32-bit packet headerand four sub-packets (each consisting of 64 bits). Each subpacketincludes 56 data bits followed by 8 BCH parity bits. Nine data bits of apacket are transmitted per link clock cycle. In accordance with someembodiments of the invention, an HDMI-compliant transmitter transmitspackets containing encoded packing phase data and/or encoded color modedata over each of at least some of the data channels of a TMDS linkduring data islands. During active video intervals, TMDS code wordsindicative of packets of encoded video data are transmitted over thelink (e.g., in the same manner described above with reference to otherembodiments of the invention).

In a class of embodiments in which no explicit packing phase data aretransmitted to a receiver (i.e., embodiments in which no messagesindicative of packing phase data are transmitted during blankingintervals), packing phase data can be indicated implicitly to a receiverby restricting the total video (pixels plus blanking) words per line tobe an integer multiple of the packing group size (G video words). Thisrestriction may be acceptable in some applications. In this specialcase, the phase at the checkpoint (e.g., the first or last pixelfragment in each line) does not change from line to line (assuming thatthe total characters per line is constant), and can be fixed in thedesign of the transmitter and receiver state machines, eliminating theneed for communication of phase via link messages (or other explicitlytransmitted packing phase data). For example, a transmitter could starteach line by transmitting a fragment having phase 0 (e.g., state 10P0 inthe 10-bit mode), and the receiver can know the start of line byobserving the rising edge of DE and can adjust its starting phase tophase 0, without the need for a phase message, as the phase is impliedby DE. In such implementations, the transmitter (operating in each N-bitmode in which it packs a sequence of N-bit words of video data into asequence of fragments, where N≠K and each of the fragments consists of Kbits of the video data) always transmits a fragment (of an M-fragmentgroup, where M=N/D, and D is the greatest common divisor of N and K) ofthe video data which has fixed, predetermined phase (within theM-fragment group) at each checkpoint (e.g., at the start or the end ofeach active video interval). Such embodiments support arbitrary pixelcounts (number of fragments transmitted) and blanking counts (number ofblanking characters transmitted) per horizontal line of transmittedvideo data, provided that the total (pixel plus blanking) count per lineis constant and constrained to be an integer multiple of the pixel groupsize (i.e., the total number of fragments plus blanking characterstransmitted per horizontal line is constrained to be X*M, where X is aninteger).

In another class of embodiments in which no explicit packing phase dataare transmitted to a receiver, packing phase data can be indicatedimplicitly to a receiver by implementing the transmitter such that thetransmitter (operating in each N-bit mode in which it packs a sequenceof N-bit words of video data into a sequence of fragments, where N≠K andeach of the fragments consists of K bits of the video data) alwaysrestarts the packing sequence at each checkpoint (e.g., at the start ofeach active video interval). For example, this can be done byconfiguring the transmitter to implement the state diagram of FIG. 14(and the receiver to implement that of FIG. 15), both of which assumeoperation in a 10-bit mode.

The transmitter state diagram of FIG. 14 shows one implementation ofthis alternate approach of restarting packing at the beginning of eachline. The pixel packing states 10P0 through 10P4 are the same sequenceused previously in FIG. 4 and again refer to the fragments defined inTable 3.

The transition states 10PC0 through 10PC3 and the blanking states 10C0through 10C4 are similar to FIG. 4, with the following modifications:

-   -   Upon entry into the blanking period (DE changes to 0), a        fragment counter is started. This occurs on one of the following        transitions (depending on the active pixel count per line): 10P1        to 10PC2, 10P2 to 10PC3, 10P3 to 10PC4, or 10P4 to 10C0;    -   The fragment counter is started at an initial count that is        derived from the horizontal blanking period (described below)        and modified based on the current line count;    -   As the blanking period progresses (including a possible initial        transition period through none of more of the 10PCn states,        eventually looping through the 10Cn states), the fragment        counter counts down once per link clock;    -   Whenever the fragment counter becomes zero (in one of the 10Cn        states), the next state is forced to 10P0, starting the next        line at phase 0, regardless of the ending phase of the blanking        period; and    -   A line counter is incremented at the start of each line        (entering 10P0 from one of the 10Cn states). This counter counts        modulo G (the packing group size in pixels).

The blanking period is fixed in the pixel clock domain, but will, ingeneral, vary by one cycle in the link clock domain, depending on thevideo timing active and blanking pixel counts. In order to correctlyrecover the video (pixel and blanking) characters at the correct pixelclock rate when the link clock rate is (N/K) times the pixel clock rate,the average blanking period in link clocks (HBL) must be HBP*(N/K),where HBP is the blanking count in pixels, N is the pixel word size (10bits in this example) and K the link fragment size (8 bits in thisexample). For a timing such as the 480p CEA-861 digital televisionstandard, HBP=138, and HBL will be 172.5 for this 10-bit mode example.For every G lines, if half of the lines have 172 fragments and half have173 fragments, the correct average is obtained. The blanking periodwidth will appear to vary in the link clock domain, but will be constantwhen recovered to the pixel clock domain.

The correct blanking duration is obtained in the link clock domain byinitializing the fragment counter (mentioned above) on entry into theblanking period with either HBL rounded down or HBL rounded up (to thenearest integer; in this example 172 or 173). If the fractional part ofHBL is called FHBL, HBL must be rounded up FHBL*G lines in every Glines. The mod G line counter and a register containing FHBL are used tocontrol whether HBL rounded up or down is loaded as the start value tothe fragment counter.

The receiver state diagram of FIG. 15 shows one implementation ofreceiver corresponding to the transmitter of FIG. 14. The sequence isthe same as in FIG. 4, with the following modification:

-   -   Whenever the DE becomes one (in one of the 10Cn states), the        next state is forced to 10P0, starting the next line at phase 0,        regardless of the ending phase of the blanking period.

A receiver that implements the FIG. 15 state diagram will correctlytrack the transmitter of FIG. 14 without requiring link phase messages(the earlier described explicit phase approach), by using the agreedrule that a DE=0 to DE=1 transition must always cause the transmitterand receiver to go to phase 0 (10P0).

In another class of embodiments that use the transmitter and receiverstate diagrams of FIGS. 4 through 6, a different method can be used tocommunicate the transmitter phase to the receiver that avoids explicitphase messages. In each of these state diagrams, the final phase of theblanking loop (10C4 in FIG. 4, 12C2 in FIG. 5 and 16C1 in FIG. 6) is arepetition of the fragment transmitted in the previous state. In commonvideo timings, the blanking codes change very slowly (not more thanthree different values per blanking interval) relative to the blankinginterval duration (typically hundreds of pixel clock cycles or more). Inthese embodiments, the transmitter uses the repeated fragment (10C4 inFIG. 4, 12C2 in FIG. 5 and 16C1 in FIG. 6) to send the complement of thesync code sent in the preceding fragment (for example if HS=1 is sentduring one link clock cycle during a blanking interval, the transmittersends HS=0 during the next link clock cycle). When (as is typical) thesync code changes very slowly compared to the fragment group rate, thereceiver can low pass filter the received sync codes to estimate theintended sync code (for the 10 bit example, 4 out of 5 fragments willtend to be the true sync value with one of 5 being the complement of thesync value) and can determine which of the fragments in the group is thecomplement of the estimated true sync value. The receiver then knowsthat the complemented fragment must be phase (F-1) of phases 0 through(F-1). The receiver can use this information to adjust its state machinephase to match the transmitter in the manner already described.

It should be understood that while certain forms of the presentinvention are illustrated and described herein, the invention is definedby the claims and is not to be limited to the specific embodimentsdescribed and shown.

1. A transmitter for transmitting N-bit video over a serial linkconfigured to transmit encoded K-bit words of video data, saidtransmitter comprising: a subsystem operable in at least one N-bit modeto pack a sequence of N-bit words of video data into a sequence offragments, where N≠K and each of the fragments consists of K bits of thevideo data; and circuitry coupled to the subsystem and having at leastone output configured to be coupled to the serial link, wherein thecircuitry is configured to generate a sequence of encoded fragments byencoding each fragment in the sequence of fragments and to assert thesequence of encoded fragments to the at least one output, whereby theencoded fragments can be transmitted over the link when said link iscoupled to the at least one output.
 2. The transmitter of claim 1,wherein the sequence of encoded fragments is a sequence of groups of Mencoded fragments, where M=N/D, D is the greatest common divisor of Nand K, the N-bit words of video data are asserted to the subsystem at afirst rate equal to P of the N-bit words per unit time, and thecircuitry is configured to assert the sequence of encoded fragments tothe at least one output at a second rate that is at least substantiallyequal to (N/K)P of the encoded fragments per unit time.
 3. Thetransmitter of claim 2, wherein the transmitter is configured to executestate sequences, each consisting of M states, during operation in eachsaid N-bit mode, said state sequences including: active video intervalsequences, wherein M of the encoded fragments are asserted to the atleast one output during each of the active video interval sequences;blanking interval sequences, wherein M blanking characters is assertedto the at least one output during each of the blanking intervalsequences, and one of said M blanking characters is identical to anotherone of said M blanking characters; active video to blanking transitionalsequences, wherein one of the encoded fragments is asserted to the atleast one output during a first state of each of the active video toblanking transitional sequences and a last state of each of the activevideo to blanking transitional sequences occurs in a blanking interval;and blanking to active video transitional sequences, wherein one of theencoded fragments is asserted to the at least one output during a laststate of each of the blanking to active video transitional sequences anda first state of each of the blanking to active video transitionalsequences occurs in a blanking interval, wherein the transmitter isconfigured to assert the sequence of encoded fragments to the at leastone output without omitting assertion of any encoded fragment thereof byexecuting, completely or partially, a sufficient number of statesequence cycles, each of the state sequence cycles including any numberof the active video interval sequences, followed by one of the activevideo to blanking transitional sequences, followed by a number of theblanking interval sequences, followed by one of the blanking to activevideo transitional sequences.
 4. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein thesequence of encoded fragments is a sequence of groups of M encodedfragments, each of the M encoded fragments in each of the groups has adifferent phase within the group, and the transmitter is configured toassert the encoded fragments to the at least one output during activevideo intervals and to assert packing phase data to the at least oneoutput during at least some blanking intervals between the active videointervals, wherein the packing phase data indicate the phase of one ofthe encoded fragments that has been asserted to the at least one outputat a known checkpoint.
 5. The transmitter of claim 4, wherein thepacking phase data asserted during a blanking interval indicate thephase of the last one of the encoded fragments asserted to the at leastone output before said blanking interval.
 6. The transmitter of claim 5,wherein the circuitry includes encoder circuitry having a first pair ofoutputs configured to be coupled to a data channel of a transitionminimized differential signaling (TMDS) link and a second pair ofoutputs configured to be coupled to a second data channel of the TMDSlink, the encoder circuitry is configured to receive and encode controlbits and to assert code words indicative of the encoded control bits tothe first pair of outputs and the second pair of outputs, and thetransmitter is operable in a message mode in which control bitsincluding packing phase bits are asserted to the encoder circuitry andthe encoder circuitry asserts code words indicative of the packing phasebits to the first pair of outputs and the second pair of outputs,wherein said code words indicative of the packing phase bits determinethe packing phase data.
 7. The transmitter of claim 6, wherein thetransmitter is also operable in a second mode in which a sequence offour-bit control words are asserted to the encoder circuitry, each ofsaid control words including a CTL0 bit, a CTL1 bit, a CTL2 bit, and aCTL3 bit, and wherein the control bits asserted to the encoder circuitryin the message mode include a sequence of message mode control words,each of said message mode control words including a CTL0 bit, two of thepacking phase bits, and a CTL3 bit.
 8. The transmitter of claim 6,wherein K=8, the transmitter is also operable in an 8-bit mode in whichthe circuitry asserts 10-bit TMDS code words indicative of 8-bit wordsof the video data to the at least one output during active videointervals at a rate of one 10-bit TMDS code word per cycle of a linkclock having frequency P, each of the encoded fragments is a 10-bit TMDScode word, the transmitter is also operable in each said N-bit mode toassert the sequence of encoded fragments to the at least one outputduring active video intervals at a rate of one encoded fragment percycle of a second link clock having frequency at least substantiallyequal to (N/8)P, and the packing phase data are indicated by a sequenceof 10-bit TMDS code words asserted to the first pair of outputs and thesecond pair of outputs during the first X cycles of the second linkclock during at least one blanking interval between active videointervals during operation of the transmitter in each said N-bit mode,where X is a predetermined integer.
 9. The transmitter of claim 5,wherein the transmitter is configured to assert the encoded fragments tothe at least one output during active video intervals and to assertpackets including encoded auxiliary data to the at least one outputduring data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time intervalthat neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active videointervals, the transmitter is also configured to assert control data tothe at least one output during control data periods, wherein the controldata periods neither coincide with nor overlap any of the data islandsand neither coincide with nor overlap any of the active video intervals,and at least one of the packets includes the packing phase data.
 10. Thetransmitter of claim 5, wherein the transmitter is configured to assertcolor mode data to the at least one output during at least some blankingintervals between active video intervals, wherein the color mode dataare indicative of the N-bit mode in which the subsystem is operating.11. The transmitter of claim 10, wherein the circuitry includes encodercircuitry having a first pair of outputs configured to be coupled to adata channel of a transition minimized differential signaling (TMDS)link and a second pair of outputs configured to be coupled to a seconddata channel of the TMDS link, the encoder circuitry is configured toreceive and encode control bits and to assert code words indicative ofthe encoded control bits to the first pair of outputs and the secondpair of outputs, and the transmitter is operable in a first message modein which control bits including color mode bits are asserted to theencoder circuitry and the encoder circuitry asserts code wordsindicative of the color mode bits to the first pair of outputs and thesecond pair of outputs, wherein said code words indicative of the colormode bits determine the color mode data.
 12. The transmitter of claim11, wherein the transmitter is also operable in a second message mode inwhich a sequence of second message mode control words are asserted tothe encoder circuitry, each of said second message mode control wordsincluding a CTL0 bit, a pair of packing phase bits, and a CTL3 bit, andthe encoder circuitry asserts code words indicative of the packing phasebits to the first pair of outputs and the second pair of outputs,wherein said code words indicative of the packing phase bits determinethe packing phase data, and wherein the control bits asserted to theencoder circuitry in the first message mode include a sequence offour-bit words, each including a CTL0 bit, a pair of the color modebits, and a CTL3 bit.
 13. The transmitter of claim 10, wherein thetransmitter is configured to assert the encoded fragments to the atleast one output during active video intervals and to assert packetsincluding encoded auxiliary data to the at least one output during dataislands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval thatneither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video intervals,the transmitter is also configured to assert control data to the atleast one output during control data periods, wherein the control dataperiods neither coincide with nor overlap any of the data islands andneither coincide with nor overlap any of the active video intervals, andat least one of the packets includes the color mode data.
 14. Thetransmitter of claim 1, wherein K=8, the transmitter is also operable inan 8-bit mode in which the circuitry asserts Q-bit code words indicativeof 8-bit words of the video data to the at least one output duringactive video intervals at a rate of one Q-bit word per cycle of a linkclock having frequency P.
 15. The transmitter of claim 14, wherein eachof the encoded fragments is a Q-bit code word, and the transmitter isalso operable in each said N-bit mode to assert the sequence of encodedfragments to the at least one output during active video intervals at arate of one encoded fragment per cycle of a second link clock havingfrequency at least substantially equal to (N/8)P.
 16. The transmitter ofclaim 15, wherein the serial link is a transition minimized differentialsignaling (TMDS) link and the circuitry is configured to generate a thesequence of encoded fragments by encoding the fragments as 10-bit TMDScode words.
 17. The transmitter of claim 15, wherein the transmitter isoperable in a 10-bit mode in which N=10, the sequence of encodedfragments is a sequence of groups, each said group consists of five ofthe encoded fragments, and each encoded fragment in each said group hasa different phase within the group.
 18. The transmitter of claim 17,wherein the subsystem is configured to operate as follows when thetransmitter operating in the 10-bit mode enters a blanking intervalafter asserting a Q-bit code word indicative of a second fragment of agroup to the at least one output but before asserting a Q-bit code wordindicative of a third fragment of the group to the at least one output:during a first cycle of the second link clock in the blanking interval,the subsystem enters a first intermediate state; during a second cycleof the second link clock in the blanking interval, the subsystem entersa second intermediate state; during a third cycle of the second linkclock in the blanking interval, the subsystem enters a thirdintermediate state; during a fourth cycle of the second link clock inthe blanking interval, the subsystem enters a first blanking state; andduring subsequent cycles of the second link clock in the blankinginterval, the subsystem enters a repeating sequence of a second blankingstate, a third blanking state, a fourth blanking state, a fifth blankingstate, and the first blanking state.
 19. The transmitter of claim 18,wherein the subsystem is configured to operate as follows when thetransmitter operating in the 10-bit mode enters a blanking intervalafter asserting a Q-bit code word indicative of a third fragment of agroup to the at least one output but before asserting a Q-bit code wordindicative of a fourth fragment of the group to the at least one output:during a first cycle of the second link clock in the blanking interval,the subsystem enters the second intermediate state; during a secondcycle of the second link clock in the blanking interval, the subsystementers the third intermediate state; during a third cycle of the secondlink clock in the blanking interval, the subsystem enters the firstblanking state; during a fourth cycle of the second link clock in theblanking interval, the subsystem enters the second blanking state; andduring subsequent cycles of the second link clock in the blankinginterval, the subsystem enters a repeating sequence of the thirdblanking state, the fourth blanking state, the fifth blanking state, thefirst blanking state, and the second blanking state.
 20. The transmitterof claim 19, wherein the subsystem is configured to operate as followswhen the transmitter operating in the 10-bit mode enters a blankinginterval after asserting a Q-bit code word indicative of a fourthfragment of a group to the at least one output but before asserting aQ-bit code word indicative of a fifth fragment of the group to the atleast one output: during a first cycle of the second link clock in theblanking interval, the subsystem enters the third intermediate state;during a second cycle of the second link clock in the blanking interval,the subsystem enters the first blanking state; during a third cycle ofthe second link clock in the blanking interval, the subsystem enters thesecond blanking state; during a fourth cycle of the second link clock inthe blanking interval, the subsystem enters the third blanking state;and during subsequent cycles of the second link clock in the blankinginterval, the subsystem enters a repeating sequence of the fourthblanking state, the fifth blanking state, the first blanking state, thesecond blanking state, and the third blanking state.
 21. The transmitterof claim 20, wherein the transmitter operating in the 10-bit mode isconfigured to operate as follows when entering an active video interval:upon entering the active video interval with the subsystem in the fifthblanking state, the circuitry asserts a Q-bit code word indicative of afirst fragment of a group to the at least one output during a firstcycle of the second link clock in the active video interval; uponentering the active video interval with the subsystem in the firstblanking state, the circuitry asserts a Q-bit code word indicative of asecond fragment of a group to the at least one output during a firstcycle of the second link clock in the active video interval; uponentering the active video interval with the subsystem in the secondblanking state, the circuitry asserts a Q-bit code word indicative of athird fragment of a group to the at least one output during a firstcycle of the second link clock in the active video interval; and uponentering the active video interval with the subsystem in the thirdblanking state, the circuitry asserts a Q-bit code word indicative of afourth fragment of a group to the at least one output during a firstcycle of the second link clock in the active video interval.
 22. Thetransmitter of claim 15, wherein the transmitter is operable in a 12-bitmode in which N=12, the sequence of encoded fragments is a sequence ofgroups, each said group consists of three of the encoded fragments, andeach encoded fragment in each said group has a different phase withinthe group.
 23. The transmitter of claim 22, wherein the subsystem isconfigured to operate as follows when the transmitter operating in the12-bit mode enters a blanking interval after asserting a Q-bit code wordindicative of a second fragment of a group to the at least one outputbut before asserting a Q-bit code word indicative of a third fragment ofthe group to the at least one output: during a first cycle of the secondlink clock in the blanking interval, the subsystem enters a thirdblanking state; and during subsequent cycles of the second link clock inthe blanking interval, the subsystem enters a repeating sequence of afirst blanking state, a second blanking state, and the third blankingstate.
 24. The transmitter of claim 23, wherein the transmitteroperating in the 12-bit mode is configured to operate as follows whenentering an active video interval with the subsystem in the thirdblanking state: during a first cycle of the second link clock in theactive video interval, the circuitry asserts a Q-bit code wordindicative of a first fragment of a group to the at least one output.25. The transmitter of claim 15, wherein the transmitter is operable ina 16-bit mode in which N=16, the sequence of encoded fragments is asequence of groups, each said group consists of two of the encodedfragments, and each encoded fragment in each said group has a differentphase within the group.
 26. The transmitter of claim 25, wherein thesubsystem is configured to operate as follows when the transmitteroperating in the 16-bit mode enters a blanking interval after assertinga Q-bit code word indicative of a second fragment of a group to the atleast one output but before asserting a Q-bit code word indicative of afirst fragment of a subsequent group to the at least one output: duringa first cycle of the second link clock in the blanking interval, thesubsystem enters a first blanking state; and during subsequent cycles ofthe second link clock in the blanking interval, the subsystem enters arepeating sequence of a second blanking state, and the first blankingstate.
 27. The transmitter of claim 26, wherein the transmitteroperating in the 16-bit mode is configured to operate as follows whenentering an active video interval with the subsystem in the secondblanking state: during a first cycle of the second link clock in theactive video interval, the circuitry asserts a Q-bit code wordindicative of a first fragment of a group to the at least one output.28. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the sequence of encodedfragments is a sequence of groups of M encoded fragments, each of the Mencoded fragments in each of the groups has a different phase within thegroup, the circuitry is configured to assert the sequence of encodedfragments to the at least one output during active video intervals andto assert blanking characters to the at least one output during blankingintervals, and the transmitter is configured to execute state machinesequences, each consisting of M states, that implement transitionsbetween the active video intervals and the blanking intervals atboundaries between assertion of different encoded fragments of a singlegroup, and between boundaries that occur between assertion of differentgroups, without omitting assertion of any encoded fragment in thesequence of encoded fragments.
 29. The transmitter of claim 28, whereinM=N/D, where D is the greatest common divisor of N and K, thetransmitter is also operable in a K-bit mode in which the circuitryasserts code words indicative of K-bit words of the video data to the atleast one output during active video intervals at a rate of one codeword per cycle of a link clock having frequency P, the transmitter isalso operable in each said N-bit mode to assert the sequence of encodedfragments to the at least one output during active video intervals at arate of one encoded fragment per cycle of a second link clock havingfrequency at least substantially equal to (N/K)P.
 30. The transmitter ofclaim 29, wherein the transmitter is configured to assert packing phasedata to the at least one output during at least some blanking intervalsbetween the active video intervals, the packing phase data assertedduring a blanking interval indicate the phase of the last one of theencoded fragments asserted to the at least one output before saidblanking interval.
 31. The transmitter of claim 30, wherein the packingphase data are indicated by a sequence of code words asserted to a firstpair of outputs of the circuitry and a second pair of outputs of thecircuitry during the first X cycles of the second link clock during atleast one blanking interval between active video intervals duringoperation of the transmitter in each said N-bit mode, where X is aninteger.
 32. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein one said N-bit mode isa mode in which N=L*P, where L and P are integers, and the transmitteris also operable in a P-bit mode in which the video data consist ofP-bit color components, and the subsystem in the P-bit mode isconfigured to pack sets of L consecutive P-bit color components of thevideo data into N-bit words, and to pack a sequence of the N-bit wordsinto the sequence of fragments in the same manner that the subsystem inthe N-bit mode packs a sequence of N-bit words of the video data intothe sequence of fragments.
 33. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein thesequence of encoded fragments is a sequence of groups of M encodedfragments, each of the M encoded fragments in each of the groups has adifferent phase within the group, and the transmitter is configured toassert the encoded fragments to the at least one output during activevideo intervals, and to assert blanking data to the at least one outputduring blanking intervals between the active video intervals, so as toindicate implicitly the phase of each of the encoded fragments that isasserted to the at least one output at each occurrence of a knowncheckpoint.
 34. The transmitter of claim 33, wherein the phase of saideach of the encoded fragments is indicated implicitly by constrainingoccurrence of the checkpoint so as to fix said phase at each occurrenceof the checkpoint.
 35. The transmitter of claim 33, wherein the phase ofsaid each of the encoded fragments is indicated implicitly by restartingtransmission of one said sequence of groups at each occurrence of thecheckpoint.
 36. A transmitter, including: a subsystem operable in anyselected one of a number of different 3N-bit pixel modes to packsequences of N-bit color components of video data into sequences offragments, where N≠8, each of the fragments consists of 8 bits of thevideo data, and the 3N-bit pixel modes include a 30-bit pixel mode, a36-bit pixel mode, and a 48-bit pixel mode; and circuitry coupled to thesubsystem and having outputs configured to be coupled to a transitionminimized differential signaling (TMDS) link, wherein the circuitry isconfigured to generate sequences of encoded fragments by performing TMDSencoding on the sequences of fragments and to assert the sequences ofencoded fragments to the outputs during active video intervals, wherebythe encoded fragments can be transmitted over the TMDS link when saidTMDS link is coupled to the outputs, wherein the transmitter is operablein a 24-bit pixel mode in which the subsystem asserts 8-bit componentsof 24-bit pixels to the circuitry, the circuitry performs TMDS encodingon the 8-bit components to generate a 10-bit TMDS code word in responseto each of the 8-bit components, and the circuitry asserts each saidTMDS code word to the outputs, and wherein each of the sequences offragments is a sequence of M_(N)-fragment groups, where MN is an integerwhose value depends on which of the 3N-bit pixel modes is the selectedone of the 3N-bit pixel modes, each of the fragments in each of thegroups has a different phase within the group, the circuitry isconfigured to assert blanking characters to the outputs during blankingintervals, and the transmitter is configured to implement state machinesequences that implement transitions between the active video intervalsand the blanking intervals at boundaries between assertion of differentencoded fragments of a single one of the groups, and between boundariesthat occur between assertion of different ones of the groups, withoutomitting assertion of any encoded fragment in any of the sequences ofencoded fragments.
 37. The transmitter of claim 36, wherein thetransmitter is also operable in an 18-bit pixel mode in which the videodata are 18-bit video data, and the subsystem in the 18-bit pixel modeis configured to pack consecutive 6-bit color components of the videodata into 12-bit words, and to pack sequences of the 12-bit words intothe sequences of fragments in the same manner that the subsystem in the36-bit pixel mode packs consecutive 12-bit color components of the videodata into sequences of fragments.
 38. The transmitter of claim 36,wherein transmitter in the 24-bit pixel mode is configured to asserteach said TMDS code word to the outputs at a rate of one said TMDS codeword per cycle of a link clock having frequency P, the encoded fragmentsasserted to the outputs in each said 3N-bit pixel mode are also TMDScode words, and the transmitter in each said 3N-bit pixel mode isconfigured to assert the TMDS code word to the outputs at a rate of oneof the TMDS code words per cycle of a second link clock having frequencyat least substantially equal to (N/8)P.
 39. A receiver, including:circuitry having inputs configured to be coupled to a serial link,wherein the circuitry is configured to recover K-bit words of video datathat have been transmitted to at least a subset of the inputs; and asubsystem coupled to the circuitry to receive a sequence of the K-bitwords and operable in at least one N-bit mode in which the sequence ofthe K-bit words is a sequence of packed K-bit fragments of a sequence ofN-bit video data words, where N≠K, and the subsystem is operable in eachsaid N-bit mode to unpack the fragments to recover the sequence of N-bitvideo data words.
 40. The receiver of claim 39, wherein the sequence ofK-bit fragments is a sequence of M-fragment groups, each of thefragments in each of the groups has a different phase within the group,the circuitry is configured to recover the K-bit words of video dataduring active video intervals and to recover packing phase data thathave been transmitted to at least some of the inputs during at leastsome blanking intervals between the active video intervals, the packingphase data indicate the phase of one of the fragments transmitted at aknown checkpoint, and the circuitry is configured to generate at leastone control bit in response to the packing phase data and to assert eachsaid control bit to the subsystem to set said subsystem in a statecorresponding to said phase of said one of the fragments transmitted atthe known checkpoint.
 41. The receiver of claim 40, wherein the packingphase data recovered during each blanking interval indicate the phase ofthe last one of the fragments transmitted before said blanking interval,and the circuitry is configured to generate the at least one control bitin response to the packing phase data and to assert each said controlbit to the subsystem to set said subsystem in a state corresponding tosaid phase of the last one of the fragments transmitted before saidblanking interval.
 42. The receiver of claim 41, wherein the circuitryis configured to recover color mode data that have been transmitted toat least some of the inputs during at least some blanking intervalsbetween the active video intervals to indicate in which N-bit mode thereceiver should operate, and the circuitry is configured to generate atleast one control bit in response to the color mode data and to asserteach said control bit to the subsystem.
 43. The receiver of claim 39,wherein the circuitry is also configured to recover a link clock havingfrequency L that has been transmitted to at least one of the inputs overthe serial link, and the circuitry includes a frequency divider coupledto receive the link clock and operable in the N-bit mode to generate apixel clock having frequency P at least substantially equal to (K/N)L inresponse to the link clock.
 44. The receiver of claim 43, wherein thesubsystem includes a FIFO coupled to receive the link clock and thepixel clock, and the subsystem is configured to clock the fragments intothe FIFO in response to the link clock and to clock the sequence N-bitvideo data words out of the FIFO in response to the pixel clock.
 45. Thereceiver of claim 39, wherein the circuitry is configured to recovercode words indicative of K-bit words of video data that have beentransmitted to at least some of the inputs over the serial link and todecode the code words to recover the K-bit words of video data.
 46. Thereceiver of claim 45, wherein K=8, the link is a transition minimizeddifferential signaling (TMDS) link, the circuitry is configured torecover 10-bit TMDS code words indicative of the 8-bit words of videodata and to decode the TMDS code words to recover the 8-bit words ofvideo data.
 47. The receiver of claim 45, wherein K=8, the receiver isoperable in a 10-bit mode in which N=10, the sequence of 8-bit fragmentsis a sequence of groups, each said group consists of five of thefragments, each fragment in each said group has a different phase withinthe group, the circuitry is configured to recover a link clock havingfrequency L that has been transmitted to at least one of the inputs overthe serial link, the circuitry is operable in the 10-bit mode togenerate a pixel clock having frequency P at least substantially equalto (⅘)L in response to the link clock, and the receiver operating in the10-bit mode is configured to operate as follows upon entering a blankinginterval after a second fragment of a group has been asserted to thesubsystem but before a third fragment of the group has been asserted tothe subsystem: during a first cycle of the link clock in the blankinginterval, the receiver enters a first intermediate state; during asecond cycle of the link clock in the blanking interval, the receiverenters a second intermediate state; during a third cycle of the linkclock in the blanking interval, the receiver enters a third intermediatestate; during a fourth cycle of the link clock in the blanking interval,the receiver enters a first blanking state; and during subsequent cyclesof the link clock in the blanking interval, the receiver enters arepeating sequence of a second blanking state, a third blanking state, afourth blanking state, a fifth blanking state, and the first blankingstate.
 48. The receiver of claim 47, wherein the receiver operating inthe 10-bit mode is configured to operate as follows upon entering ablanking interval after a third fragment of a group has been asserted tothe subsystem but before a fourth fragment of the group has beenasserted to the subsystem: during a first cycle of the link clock in theblanking interval, the receiver enters the second intermediate state;during a second cycle of the link clock in the blanking interval, thereceiver enters the third intermediate state; during a third cycle ofthe link clock in the blanking interval, the receiver enters the firstblanking state; during a fourth cycle of the link clock in the blankinginterval, the receiver enters the second blanking state; and duringsubsequent cycles of the link clock in the blanking interval, thereceiver enters a repeating sequence of the third blanking state, thefourth blanking state, the fifth blanking state, the first blankingstate, and the second blanking state.
 49. The receiver of claim 48,wherein the receiver operating in the 10-bit mode is configured tooperate as follows upon entering a blanking interval after a fourthfragment of a group has been asserted to the subsystem but before afifth fragment of the group has been asserted to the subsystem: during afirst cycle of the link clock in the blanking interval, the receiverenters the third intermediate state; during a second cycle of the linkclock in the blanking interval, the receiver enters the first blankingstate; during a third cycle of the link clock in the blanking interval,the receiver enters the second blanking state; during a fourth cycle ofthe link clock in the blanking interval, the receiver enters the thirdblanking state; and during subsequent cycles of the link clock in theblanking interval, the receiver enters a repeating sequence of thefourth blanking state, the fifth blanking state, the first blankingstate, the second blanking state, and the third blanking state.
 50. Thereceiver of claim 45, wherein K=8, the receiver is operable in a 12-bitmode in which N=12, the sequence of 8-bit fragments is a sequence ofgroups, each said group consists of three of the fragments, eachfragment in each said group has a different phase within the group, thecircuitry is configured to recover a link clock having frequency L thathas been transmitted to at least one of the inputs over the serial link,the circuitry is operable in the 12-bit mode to generate a pixel clockhaving frequency P at least substantially equal to (⅔)L in response tothe link clock, and the receiver operating in the 12-bit mode isconfigured to operate as follows upon entering a blanking interval aftera second fragment of a group has been asserted to the subsystem butbefore a third fragment of the group has been asserted to the subsystem:during a first cycle of the link clock in the blanking interval, thereceiver enters a third blanking state; and during subsequent cycles ofthe link clock in the blanking interval, the receiver enters a repeatingsequence of a first blanking state, a second blanking state, and thethird blanking state.
 51. The receiver of claim 45, wherein K=8, thereceiver is operable in a 16-bit mode in which N=16, the sequence of8-bit fragments is a sequence of groups, each said group consists of twoof the fragments, each fragment in each said group has a different phasewithin the group, the circuitry is configured to recover a link clockhaving frequency L that has been transmitted to at least one of theinputs over the serial link, the circuitry is operable in the 16-bitmode to generate a pixel clock having frequency P at least substantiallyequal to L/2 in response to the link clock, and the receiver operatingin the 16-bit mode is configured to operate as follows upon entering ablanking interval after a second fragment of a group has been assertedto the subsystem but before a first fragment of the group has beenasserted to the subsystem: during a first cycle of the link clock in theblanking interval, the receiver enters a first blanking state; andduring subsequent cycles of the link clock in the blanking interval, thereceiver enters a repeating sequence of a second blanking state, and thefirst blanking state.
 52. The receiver of claim 39, wherein the sequenceof packed K-bit fragments is a sequence of groups of M fragments, whereM=N/D, D is the greatest common divisor of N and K, and the subsystem ineach said N-bit mode is configured to execute state sequences, eachconsisting of M states, during operation in each said N-bit mode, saidstate sequences including: active video interval sequences, wherein M ofthe fragments are recovered during each of the active video intervalsequences; blanking interval sequences, wherein M blanking charactersare recovered during each of the blanking interval sequences, and one ofsaid M blanking characters is identical to another one of said Mblanking characters; active video to blanking transitional sequences,wherein one of the fragments is recovered during a first state of eachof the active video to blanking transitional sequences and a blankingcharacter is recovered during a last state of each of the active videoto blanking transitional sequences; and blanking to active videotransitional sequences, wherein one of the fragments is recovered duringa last state of each of the blanking to active video transitionalsequences and a blanking character is recovered during a first state ofeach of the blanking to active video transitional sequences, wherein thesubsystem in each said N-bit mode is configured to recover the sequenceof N-bit video data words by executing, completely or partially, asufficient number of state sequence cycles, each of the state sequencecycles including any number of the active video interval sequences,followed by one of the active video to blanking transitional sequences,followed by a number of the blanking interval sequences, followed by oneof the blanking to active video transitional sequences.
 53. The receiverof claim 39, wherein the circuitry is also configured to generate amultiphase clock set in response to a link clock having frequency L thathas been transmitted to at least one of the inputs over the serial link,the multiphase clock set includes X clocks, each of said clocks having adifferent phase and a frequency at least substantially equal to Y*L,where X and Y are integers, so that the multiphase clock set defines X*Ysubdivisions of each period of the link clock, and the circuitryincludes a frequency divider coupled to receive at least one clock ofthe multiphase clock set and operable in the N-bit mode to generate apixel clock having frequency P at least substantially equal to (K/N)L inresponse to the at least one clock of the multiphase clock set, whereinthe frequency divider is configured to generate a waveform, to generateat least one phase shifted version of the waveform, and to combine thewaveform and at least one said phase shifted version of the waveform togenerate the pixel clock.
 54. A receiver, including: circuitry havinginputs configured to be coupled to a transition minimized differentialsignaling (TMDS) link, wherein the circuitry is configured to configuredto recover TMDS code words indicative of 8-bit words of video data thathave been transmitted to at least a subset of the inputs and to decodethe code words to recover the 8-bit words of video data; and a subsystemcoupled to the circuitry to receive sequences of the 8-bit words andoperable in any selected one of a number of different 3N-bit pixel modesin which N≠8 and the sequences of the 8-bit words are sequences ofpacked 8-bit fragments of 3N-bit pixels, wherein the subsystem isoperable in each said 3N-bit pixel mode to unpack the fragments torecover a sequence of the 3N-bit pixels, the 3N-bit pixel modes includea 30-bit pixel mode, a 36-bit pixel mode, and a 48-bit pixel mode, thereceiver is also operable in a 24-bit pixel mode in which the sequencesof the 8-bit words received by the subsystem are sequences of 24-bitpixels, and the circuitry is also configured to recover a link clockhaving frequency L that has been transmitted to at least a subset of theinputs over the TMDS link, and the circuitry includes a frequencydivider coupled to receive the link clock and operable in each said3N-bit pixel mode to generate a pixel clock having frequency P at leastsubstantially equal to (8/N)L in response to the link clock.
 55. Asystem, including: a transmitter; a receiver; and a serial link coupledbetween the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmittercomprises: a subsystem operable in at least one N-bit mode to pack asequence of N-bit words of video data into a sequence of fragments,where N≠K and each of the fragments consists of K bits of the videodata; and circuitry coupled to the subsystem and having outputsconfigured to be coupled to data channels of the serial link, whereinthe circuitry is configured to generate a sequence of encoded fragmentsby encoding the fragments and to assert the sequence of encodedfragments to the outputs to transmit the encoded fragments to thereceiver over the link.
 56. The system of claim 55, wherein the sequenceof encoded fragments is a sequence of groups of M encoded fragments,where M=N/D, D is the greatest common divisor of N and K, the N-bitwords of video data are asserted to the subsystem at a first rate equalto P of the N-bit words per unit time, and the circuitry of thetransmitter is configured to assert the sequence of encoded fragments tothe outputs at a second rate that is at least substantially equal to(N/K)P of the encoded fragments per unit time.
 57. The system of claim56, wherein the transmitter is configured to execute state sequences,each consisting of M states, during operation in each said N-bit mode,said state sequences including: active video interval sequences, whereinM of the encoded fragments are asserted to the outputs during each ofthe active video interval sequences; blanking interval sequences,wherein M blanking characters is asserted to the outputs during each ofthe blanking interval sequences, and one of said M blanking charactersis identical to another one of said M blanking characters; active videoto blanking transitional sequences, wherein one of the encoded fragmentsis asserted to the outputs during a first state of each of the activevideo to blanking transitional sequences and a last state of each of theactive video to blanking transitional sequences occurs in a blankinginterval; and blanking to active video transitional sequences, whereinone of the encoded fragments is asserted to the outputs during a laststate of each of the blanking to active video transitional sequences anda first state of each of the blanking to active video transitionalsequences occurs in a blanking interval, wherein the transmitter isconfigured to assert the sequence of encoded fragments to the outputswithout omitting assertion of any encoded fragment thereof by executing,completely or partially, a sufficient number of state sequence cycles,each of the state sequence cycles including any number of the activevideo interval sequences, followed by one of the active video toblanking transitional sequences, followed by a number of the blankinginterval sequences, followed by one of the blanking to active videotransitional sequences.
 58. The system of claim 55, wherein the sequenceof encoded fragments is a sequence of groups of M encoded fragments,each of the M encoded fragments in each of the groups has a differentphase within the group, and the transmitter is configured to assert theencoded fragments to the outputs during active video intervals and toassert packing phase data to at least one of the outputs during at leastsome blanking intervals between the active video intervals, wherein thepacking phase data asserted during a blanking interval indicate thephase of the last one of the encoded fragments asserted to the outputsbefore said blanking interval.
 59. The system of claim 58, wherein thecircuitry includes encoder circuitry having a first pair of outputsconfigured to be coupled to a data channel of a transition minimizeddifferential signaling (TMDS) link and a second pair of outputsconfigured to be coupled to a second data channel of the TMDS link, theencoder circuitry is configured to receive and encode control bits andto assert code words indicative of the encoded control bits to the firstpair of outputs and the second pair of outputs, and the transmitter isoperable in a message mode in which control bits including packing phasebits are asserted to the encoder circuitry and the encoder circuitryasserts code words indicative of the packing phase bits to the firstpair of outputs and the second pair of outputs, wherein said code wordsindicative of the packing phase bits determine the packing phase data.60. The system of claim 59, wherein the transmitter is also operable ina second mode in which a sequence of four-bit control words are assertedto the encoder circuitry, each of said control words including a CTL0bit, a CTL1 bit, a CTL2 bit, and a CTL3 bit, and wherein the controlbits asserted to the encoder circuitry in the message mode include asequence of message mode control words, each of said message modecontrol words including a CTL0 bit, two of the packing phase bits, and aCTL3 bit
 61. The system of claim 58, wherein the transmitter isconfigured to assert the encoded fragments to the outputs during activevideo intervals and to assert packets including encoded auxiliary datato at least a subset of the outputs during data islands, wherein each ofthe data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with noroverlaps any of the active video intervals, the transmitter is alsoconfigured to assert control data to the outputs during control dataperiods, wherein the control data periods neither coincide with noroverlap any of the data islands and neither coincide with nor overlapany of the active video intervals, and at least one of the packetsincludes the packing phase data.
 62. The system of claim 58, wherein thetransmitter is configured to assert color mode data to at least one ofthe outputs during at least some blanking intervals between active videointervals, wherein the color mode data are indicative of the N-bit modein which the transmitter's subsystem is operating.
 63. The system ofclaim 58, wherein the circuitry includes encoder circuitry having afirst pair of outputs configured to be coupled to a data channel of atransition minimized differential signaling (TMDS) link and a secondpair of outputs configured to be coupled to a second data channel of theTMDS link, the encoder circuitry is configured to receive and encodecontrol bits and to assert code words indicative of the encoded controlbits to the first pair of outputs and the second pair of outputs, andthe transmitter is operable in a message mode in which control bitsincluding color mode bits are asserted to the encoder circuitry and theencoder circuitry asserts code words indicative of the color mode bitsto the first pair of outputs and the second pair of outputs, whereinsaid code words indicative of the color mode bits determine the colormode data.
 64. The system of claim 56, wherein the sequence of encodedfragments is a sequence of groups of M encoded fragments, each of the Mencoded fragments in each of the groups has a different phase within thegroup, and the transmitter is configured to assert the encoded fragmentsto the outputs during active video intervals, and to assert blankingdata to the outputs during blanking intervals between the active videointervals, so as to indicate implicitly the phase of each of the encodedfragments that is asserted to the outputs at each occurrence of a knowncheckpoint.
 65. The system of claim 55, wherein the receiver includes:receiver circuitry having inputs coupled to the serial link andconfigured to recover code words indicative of K-bit words of video datathat have been transmitted to at least some of inputs over the seriallink and to decode the code words to recover the K-bit words of videodata; and an unpacking subsystem coupled to the receiver circuitry toreceive a sequence of the K-bit words and operable in at least one N-bitmode in which the sequence of the K-bit words is a sequence of packedK-bit fragments of a sequence of N-bit video data words, where N≠K, andthe unpacking subsystem is operable in each said N-bit mode to unpackthe fragments to recover the sequence of N-bit video data words.
 66. Thesystem of claim 65, wherein K=8, the link is a transition minimizeddifferential signaling (TMDS) link, and the receiver circuitry isconfigured to recover 10-bit TMDS code words indicative of the 8-bitwords of video data and to decode the TMDS code words to recover the8-bit words of video data.
 67. The system of claim 65, wherein thereceiver circuitry is also configured to generate a multiphase clock setin response to a link clock having frequency L that has been transmittedto at least one of the inputs over the serial link, the multiphase clockset includes X clocks, each of said clocks having a different phase anda frequency at least substantially equal to Y*L, where X and Y areintegers, so that the multiphase clock set defines X*Y subdivisions ofeach period of the link clock, and the receiver circuitry includes afrequency divider coupled to receive at least one clock of themultiphase clock set and operable in the N-bit mode to generate a pixelclock having frequency P at least substantially equal to (K/N)L inresponse to the at least one clock of the multiphase clock set, whereinthe frequency divider is configured to generate a waveform, to generateat least one phase shifted version of the waveform, and to combine thewaveform and at least one said phase shifted version of the waveform togenerate the pixel clock.
 68. The system of claim 55, also including: avideo source coupled to the transmitter and configured to assert theN-bit words of video data and a pixel clock having frequency P to thetransmitter, wherein the transmitter is also operable in each said N-bitmode to assert the sequence of encoded fragments to the outputs duringactive video intervals at a rate of one encoded fragment per cycle of alink clock having frequency L at least substantially equal to (N/K)P,and the transmitter is also operable in each said N-bit mode to transmitthe link clock over a clock channel of the link.
 69. The system of claim68, wherein the receiver includes: receiver circuitry having inputscoupled to the serial link and configured to recover code wordsindicative of K-bit words of video data that have been transmitted to atleast some of the inputs over the serial link and to decode the codewords to recover the K-bit words of video data; and an unpackingsubsystem coupled to the receiver circuitry to receive a sequence of theK-bit words and operable in at least one N-bit mode in which thesequence of the K-bit words is a sequence of packed K-bit fragments of asequence of N-bit video data words, where N≠K, and the unpackingsubsystem is operable in each said N-bit mode to unpack the fragments torecover the sequence of N-bit video data words, and wherein the receivercircuitry is also coupled to the clock channel of the link andconfigured to recover the link clock that has been transmitted over theclock channel, and the receiver circuitry includes a frequency dividercoupled to receive the link clock and operable in each said N-bit modeto generate a pixel clock having frequency P substantially equal to(K/N)L in response to the link clock.
 70. The system of claim 69,wherein the unpacking subsystem includes a FIFO coupled to receive thelink clock and the pixel clock, and the unpacking subsystem isconfigured to clock the fragments into the FIFO in response to the linkclock and to clock the sequence N-bit video data words out of the FIFOin response to the pixel clock.